JBRARY 


l.l"brary 

Graduate  Sc>^'^ol  of  Business  Adminlstratioa 

Un"  Tsi'ty  of  California 

Los  ArjLgeles  24,  California 


rv 


THE  BUSINESS 
OF  ADVERTISING 


BY 


EARNEST  ELMO  CALKINS 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK  AND  LONDON 

1920 


COPTHIGHT,  1915,  BT 

D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 


Pbinted  in  the  United  States  of  America 


THE  BUSINESS 
OF  ADVERTISING 


i  f 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arciiive 

in  2007  witii  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


littp://www.arcliive.org/details/businessofadvertOOcalkiala 


CYRUS  H.  K.  CURTIS 

J- 


Bus.  Admin. 
Library 


HF 
582 

Cf2b 


TO 

GYRUS  H.  K.  CURTIS 

THE  BIAN  WHO  HAS  DONE  MOST  TO  PUT 
THE  MODERN  CONDUCT  OF 

ADVERTISING 

ON  THE  RIGHT  BASIS 

THIS  BOOK  IS  AFFECTIONATELY  DEDICATED 

BY  THE  AUTHOR 


FORK  WORD 

The  first  edition  of  "Modern  Advertising"  was  pub- 
lished ten  years  ago.  At  the  time  it  was  written  it  rep- 
resented the  best  practice  in  advertising  as  far  as  that 
practice  then  could  be  compressed  into  a  single  volume. 
A  new  etiition  is  made  necessary  by  great  changes  in 
practice,  if  not  in  theory.  The  first  book  was  true  as 
far  as  it  went,  but  it  did  not  go  far  enough  to  give  a 
correct  picture  of  advertising  as  it  is  applied  to-day. 
The  original  book  becomes  by  the  rapid  increase  of 
knowledge  about  advertising  a  more  elementary  book 
than  was  intended. 

In  revising  "Modern  Advertising"  to  make  it  an  ac- 
ceptable textbook  it  has  been  necessary  to  rewrite  it. 
Tliis  rewriting  does  not  change  the  basic  idea.  Goods 
are  still  sold  to  the  public  by  means  of  the  printed  word 
and  the  graphic  picture  in  newspapers,  in  magazines, 
on  billboards  and  on  street-car  cards.  Booklets,  folders, 
catalogues  and  other  printed  things  are  made  into  ad- 
vertising mediums  and  mailed  to  prospective  customers. 
But  the  mediums  have  been  analyzed  and  classified; 
the  goods  manufactured,  wrapped  and  named  with  a 
better  idea  of  the  purchasers'  habits  and  needs;  the 
consumers  located  and  studied;  their  purchasing  power 
tabulated;  their  shopping  habits  ascertained. 

While  there  is  still  an  element  of  uncertainty  in  the 
launching  of  an  advertising  campaign,  that  element  is 
slowly  but  surely  being  reduced.  Scientific  manage- 
ment, the  painstaking  collection  of  statistics  and  their 

vii 


viii      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

intelligent  arrangement,  and  the  exercise  of  a  great  deal 
of  common- sense,  are  bringing  the  method  employed 
and  the  results  desired  closer  and  closer  together.  It 
is  these  changes  which  the  last  ten  years  have  accom- 
plished that  make  this  new  book  necessary. 

The  difference  between  advertising  then  and  now  may 
be  compared  with  the  difference  between  a  sailing  vessel 
and  a  steamship.  By  good  luck  and  favoring  weather 
a  sailing  vessel  can  make  a  voyage  almost  as  quickly 
and  reach  her  port  as  safely  as  a  steamship.  But  she 
will  not  do  it  so  often  and  there  are  too  many  circum- 
stances outside  the  control  of  her  captain  to  make  the 
voyage  anything  more  than  a  courageous  venture.  The 
number  of  times  that  a  steamship  fails  to  arrive  on  time, 
or  nearly  on  time,  or  at  all,  is  a  negligible  percentage 
of  the  total  number  of  trips.  Even  to-day  advertising 
is  not  a  scientific  certainty.  It  is  more  scientific  and 
more  certain  than  it  was. 

The  advertising  that  is  being  done  in  this  year  of 
1915  is  far  more  interesting  than  the  advertising  of 
ten  years  ago.  Also  it  is  much  harder  to  do.  The 
manufacturer  demands  of  the  advertising  agent  a  pro- 
fessional service  of  the  highest  character.  He  expects 
him  to  study  the  goods  and  their  possible  market,  some- 
times for  years,  before  a  single  advertisement  is  printed. 
The  advertising  agent  has  eagerly  met  this  demand. 
He  has  added  to  his  organization  trained  investigators, 
merchandising  men,  sales  managers  and  others  whose 
experience  in  getting  facts  about  how  goods  are  made, 
how  distributed,  and  how  sold,  is  used  to  secure  ma- 
terial out  of  which  the  advertising  campaign  is  con- 
structed. Intensive  methods  are  used  to  make  adver- 
tising more  certain  and  more  profitable.  These  inten- 
sive methods  resemble  the  intensive  cultivation  of  land 


FOREWORD  ix 

to  make  it  yield  a  larger  crop.  All  knowledge  is  drawn 
upon — statistics,  sociology,  psychology  and  that  peculiar 
science  which  is  at  the  basis  of  all  successful  advertising 
— the  study  of  human  nature. 

This  book  is  intended  to  sliow  briefly  the  work  of 
thase  who  deal  in  advertising.  It  must  be  brief  to  cover 
the  ground.  Many  phases  to  which  only  a  chapter  is 
devoted,  or  even  a  few  pages,  could  be  and  are  the  sub- 
ject of  whole  books  elsewhere.  But  this  book  adheres 
to  its  original  purpose  of  covering  the  entire  subject, 
however  sketchily,  leaving  the  reader  to  find  later  the 
working  out  of  some  of  these  problems  in  separate  books. 
A  history  of  the  world  has  been  printed  in  a  single 
volume,  but  the  history  of  one  city  often  fills  several. 
No  one  book  on  advertising  can  now  be  complete,  any 
more  than  one  book  can  hold  all  that  is  known  about 
medicine,  or  law,  or  architecture.  But  a  single  volume 
may  set  down  the  fundamentals  of  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine, and  this  book  proposes  to  set  down  the  funda- 
mentals of  the  practice  of  advertising. 

It  will  describe  in  narrative  style  what  is  done  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end  of  an  advertising  campaign, 
and  who  does  it.  It  will  attempt  to  remove  the  con- 
fusion from  the  term  "advertising  man,"  whicb.  is  ap- 
plied indiscriminately  to  the  manufacturer  who  adver- 
tises, to  his  advertising  manager,  to  his  advertising 
agent,  and  to  the  representative  of  the  medium  in  which 
he  advertises.  It  cannot  give  detailed  descriptions  of 
advertising  successes  or  failures,  though  these  are  among 
the  most  interesting  advertising  literature.^     Nor  can 

*Cherington:  "Advertising'  as  a  Business  Force."  This  book 
is  made  up  of  histories  of  advertising  successes  and  failures, 
told  generally  by  those  most  concerned,  edited  and  commented 
upon  by  the  author.  It  is  a  particularly  valuable  book  for  the 
experienced  advertiser,  but  should   be  read  by   all  beginners. 


X  THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

it  give  a  catalog  of  all  advertising  mediums.  But  all  these 
things  can  now  be  obtained  in  book  form.  Such  books 
are  tools  of  the  trade.  "Business  of  Advertising"  is 
to  suggest  how  to  use  them. 

This  book  is  intended  for  all  who  wish  to  know  what 
advertising  is,  and  how  it  is  done.  It  will  be  helpful  to 
the  young  man  engaged  in  some  phase  of  advertising 
work,  and  particularly  to  the  young  man  who  wishes 
to  know  what  advertising  work  is  in  order  to  determine 
whether  he  wants  to  undertake  it  or  not.  It  is  written 
also  with  the  idea  of  helping  the  manufacturer  whose 
product  ought  to  be  advertised.  From  it  such  a  manu- 
facturer can  gain  some  idea  of  the  various  steps  neces- 
sary to  bring  his  product  to  the  notice  of  the  consumer. 
If  it  only  strengthens  in  his  mind  the  impression  that 
professional  help  is  necessary,  it  will  have  served  a  very 
good  purpose. 

The  advertising  agent  who  renders  service  to  his 
client  is  a  very  important  factor  in  the  business  world. 
Too  many  advertisers  are  ignorant  of  the  nature  and 
scope  of  that  service.  All  that  an  agency  has  to  sell  is 
experience,  the  accumulated  experience  of  dealing  with 
many  conditions  and  many  problems.  "While  not  pri- 
marily a  book  for  advertisers,  the  mere  description  of 
an  ideal  agency  must  show  them  that  such  an  agency  is 
as  necessary  to  successful  advertising  as  coast  survey 
charts  to  navigation,  or  as  logarithms  to  an  astronomer. 

The  plan  of  the  book  is  simple.  The  first  chapter 
defines  advertising,  gives  a  brief  history  of  its  arrival 
at  its.  present  state,  and  devotes  some  space  to  the  more 
scientific  and  modern  advertising  of  to-day.  The  next 
three  chapters  are  devoted  to  the  three  grand  divisions 
of  the  advertising  world — mediums,  agents  and  adver- 
tisers.    These  have  been  characterized  for  the  purpose 


FOREWORD  xi 

of  this  book  as  Sellers  of  Space,  Sellers  of  Advertising 
and  Buyers  of  Advertising. 

Having  introduced,  as  it  were,  the  characters  in  the 
piece,  there  follows  a  long  chapter  devoted  to  describing 
the  steps  necessary  to  market  a  new  product  (and 
many  old  ones).  In  this  chapter  you  see  the  three  de- 
partments of  advertising  all  working  together,  each  in 
its  proper  place.  In  this  discussion  are  introduced  the 
subjects  of  trade  investigation  and  merchandising  which 
are  further  defined  and  analyzed  in  the  chapter  upon 
the  advertising  research.  The  actual  preparation  of 
advertising  matter  is  presented  in  the  chapter  devoted 
to  the  creative  work. 

There  is  likewise  a  chapter  on  retail  advertising,  in- 
cluding selling  by  mail.  Advertising  as  a  Profession 
will  be  helpful  to  the  young  man  about  to  make  this  his 
life  work.  ^Matter  more  or  less  technical  or  statistical  is 
confined  to  appendices  at  the  end  of  the  book. 

An  appendix  is  devoted  to  the  various  organizations 
growing  out  of  advertising  work,  and  there  is  added  a 
very  complete  bibliography,  as  well  as  a  suggested  adver- 
tising library. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


CBArTEB 

I.    What  Is  Advertising? 


II.    Sellers  of  Space 

III.  Sellers  of  Advertising 

IV.  Buyers  of  Advertising 


V.    The  Necessary  Steps  for  Marketing  a 
Product  

"VT.    The  Advertising  Renaissance  . 
VII.    The  Creative  Work  of  Advertising 
VIII.    Selling  at  Retail    .... 

IX.    Advertising  as  a  Profession  . 
Appendix  A.    Censorship  of  Copy 
Appendix  B.    Total  Number  of  Publications 
Appendix  C.    Advertising  Organizations  , 
Appendix  D.    A  Business  Library     . 
Index      


New 


FAQS 

1 
19 
52 
93 

151 

183 
202 
268 
329 
338 
341 
344 
347 
353 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Designing;  of  Packages     .        .  Colored  plate  facing  page  170 
Cyrus  H.  K.  Curtis Frontispiece 

PAOB 

Public  Ledger  Billboards        .        .        .        . '       .        .  41 

Montgomery  Ward  &  Co.  Ad 43 

Advertising  Agency  Chart 54 

Cluett  Chart 63 

Century  Magazine  Ad 65 

Public  Ledger  Newspaper  Ads 70 

Edison  Silliouette  Ads 72 

American  Magazine  Hand-lettered  Ad  ....  87 

Home  Pattern  Chart Ill 

"Making  a  Stationery  Business  Move."     (Eaton,  Crane 

&  Pike  Portfolio) 113-150 

Trade-marks 161 

Original  Gordon  Hosiery  Trade-niark    ....  162 

New  Gordon  Hosiery  Trade-mark 1G2 

Kirschbaum  "Cherry  Tree"  Trade-mark  ....  1G3 

Thomas  A.  Edison  Signature 164 

John  Wanamaker  Signature    .     - 164 

Trade-marks 165 

Big  Ben  Box 167 

Williams'   Holder   Top  Box 169 

Group  of  Geraian   Packages 174 

Brown  Durrell  Chart 176 

Sherwin-Williams  Co.  Chart  (No.  1)      .        .        .        .179 

Sherwin-Williams  Co.  Chart  (No.  2)      .        .        .         .  181 

XV 


XVI 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


Squibb  Bottle  . 192 

American  Felt  Co.  Trade-mark       .....       196 

Pieree-Arrow  Ad 206 

"Leaders  of  Fashion."     (Pieree-Arrow  Booklet) 

Folder  facing  208 
Advertisement  of  Crane's  Wedding  Papers  .  .  .  211 
Illustration  for  Eaton,  Crane  &  Pike  Curl-paper  Ad     .       213 

Highland  Linen  Ad 215 

"Completing  the  Door."     (Yale  &  Towne  Portfolio)     219-240 

United  Cigar  Stores  Ad 246 

The  Work  of  a  Well-known  Illustrator  Used  to  Give  In- 
terest and  Story-telling  Effect  to  a  Magazine  Adver- 
tisement          249 

Curtis  Publishing  Co.  Ad       .         .         .         .         .         .251 

Two  Farm  and  Fireside  Ads 255 

New  Jersey  Zinc  Co.  Ad  ......      261 

Cover  of  New  Jersey  Zinc  Co.  Booklet  ....       262 

Wanamaker  Newspaper  Page  Ad 272 

Wanamaker  War  Ad 273 

Selfridge  Ad 291 

Telephone  Ad 297 

Borden  Ad  Carrying  the  Institutional  Idea  .         .         .       298 
"Knapp-Felt  Hats  for  Men."     (Crofut  &  Knapp  Port- 
folio)    .........       301-318 


THE  BUSINESS 
OF  ADVERTISING 


THE  BUSINESS 
OF  ADVERTISING 

CHAPTER   I 
WHAT   IS    ADVERTISING  t 


§1       . 

It  is  hard  to  find  a  satisfactory  definition  of  advertis- 
ing. A  picturesque  way  of  putting  it  is  to  call  it 
business  imagination,  an  imagination  that  sees  in  a 
product  possibilities  which  can  be  realked  only  by  ap- 
pealing to  the  public  in  new  ways  to  create  a  desire 
N\'here  none  existed  before.  It  is  a  very  broad  word,  an 
omnibus  word  conveying  different  ideas  to  different 
people. 

No  definition  of  advertising  is  here  possible  except  as 
this  entire  book  may  be  accepted  as  a  definition.  So 
rapidly  has  advertising  advanced  through  its  various 
changes  that  even  the  latest  dictionaries  and  encyclo- 
pedias are  out  of  date  in  their  attempts  to  define  it.  The 
advertising  of  yesterday  is  not  the  advertising  of  to- 
day. Men  not  so  very  old  have  witnessed  its  entire  de- 
velopment from  an  untrustworthy  instrument  of  quacks 
to  its  place  as  an  engine  in  the  conduct  and  expansion 
of  business. 

Advertising  in  the  dictionary  sense  has  a  history  as 
old  as  that  of  the  human  race.  Just  as  soon  as  there 
were  enough  people  in  the  world,  some  sort  of  formal 

1 


2  THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

announcement  had  to  be  made.  The  early  history  of 
such  announcements — from  proclamations  to  the  begin- 
ning of  pictorial  and  lettered  inscriptions,  from  these 
primitive  posters  to  the  discovery  of  printing,  and  from 
the  advent  of  printing  to  the  beginning  of  real  advertis- 
ing— is  of  interest  only  to  the  archeologist.  It  is  of  no 
value  to  the  business  man.^  It  would  be  of  less  assistance 
to  understanding  modern  advertising  than  ancient  Phce- 
nician  coins  would  be  to  comprehending  the  principles 
of  a  modern  bank. 

Every  attempt  to  secure  the  sale  of  an  article  is  ad- 
vertising. The  wares  of  the  primitive  merchant  dis- 
played invitingly  in  front  of  his  booth  is  advertising.  A 
want  ad,  to  secure  a  job  or  a  servant,  is  advertising.  An 
inscription  on  a  wall,  the  cry  of  a  street  hawker,  the 
barker  in  front  of  a  side  show,  membership  in  a  lodge 
or  club,  wearing  a  peculiar  hat  or  distinctive  tie — all 
these  are  forms  of  advertising  in  that  they  seek  to  attract 
attention  to  an  article  or  a  service  that  is  for  sale. 


§2 

Real  advertising  began  when  methods  of  printing  had 
been  so  perfected  as  to  make  it  possible  to  multiply  al- 

*  While  a  book  of  this  kind  cannot  give  space  to  the  history 
of  advertising,  such  a  history  should  be  interesting  to  every 
advertising  man.  The  best  account  of  the  use  and  development 
of  the  advertising  agent  is  given  by  George  Presbury  Eowell  in 
"Forty  Years  an  Advertising  Agent,"  a  book  vrell  worth  read- 
ing for  its  own  sake.  It  has  something  of  the  charm  of  Ben- 
venuto  Cellini's  "Autobiography"  and  of  Samuel  Pepys' 
' '  Diary, ' '  arising  equally  from  its  literary  style,  its  quaint  humor 
and  its  inherent  honesty.  It  was  published  by  the  Printers'  Ink 
Press  and  unfortunately  is  now  out  of  print.  Let  us  hope  that 
it  will  not  remain  so. 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  S 

most  indefinitely  the  number  of  copies  of  a  periodical. 
Some  of  the  advertisements  in  early  newspapers,  notably 
in  Joseph  Addison's  Spectator,  are  excellent  models  even 
to-day  of  straightforward  appeals  for  trade.  But  such 
advertising  was  of  slow  growth,  ^fany  publications  con- 
sidered advertising  detrimental.  Some  refused  it  alto- 
gether. Others  imposed  Procrustean  limits  and  condi- 
tions. When  John  Wanamaker  began  to  advertise,  the 
Public  Ledger  limited  the  amount  of  space  he  could  use, 
and  confined  the  width  to  a  single  column. 

This  nation  has  now  reached  the  point  where  only  a 
small  fraction  of  the  people  are  unable  to  read.  The 
American  people  are  quick  to  learn  and  to  use  what  they 
learn.  Their  mental  activity  demands  a  large  supply  of 
periodical  literature.  That  demand  has  been  supplied 
by  over  twenty-two  thousand  periodicals,^  some  with  cir- 
culations exceeding  two  million.  These  are  the  reasons 
why  advertising  has  found  its  greatest  and  most  rapid 
development  in  the  United  States,  and  why  other  coun- 
tries may  practically  be  ignored  in  a  book  of  this  kind. 

Following  the  Civil  War  came  a  great  growth  in  the 
number  and  circulation  of  newspapers.  An  outburst  of 
patent  medicine  advertising  and  other  objectionable  or 
dishonest  publicity  quickly  followed.  This  advertising 
revealed  the  tremendous  power  of  the  new  method  of 
getting  business,  while  burdening  it  with  an  odium  from 
which  it  only  now  is  being  freed. 

Public  opinion  at  first  and  legal  measures  more  re- 
cently have  curtailed  the  opportunities  of  fraudulent  ad- 
vertising by  closing  to  it  the  columns  of  the  better 
advertising  mediums.  The  patent  medicines  of  the  pal- 
pably swindling  kind  are  almost  extinct.    Those  that  re- 

*  Ayer  's  Directory  1914 :  Total  number  of  periodicals,  22,862 ; 
13th  Census  1909,  22,141. 


4  THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

main  are  viewed  with  suspicion.  Few  magazines  will 
accept  them  and  the  number  of  newspapers  that  will  do 
so  is  steadily  growing  less.  The  real  cause  of  this  change 
is  something  stronger  than  public  opinion,  stronger  even 
than  the  law;  and  that  is  self-interest.  The  legitimate 
manufacturer  realized  that  his  advertising  suffered  from 
association  with  any  advertising  intended  to  mislead  or 
betray  the  public.  Honest  advertising  cannot  flourish 
alongside  the  announcements  of  patent  medicines,  quack 
doctors,  swindlers,  get- rich-quick  schemes,  any  more  than 
good  vegetables  can  be  raised  in  a  garden  overgrown 
with  weeds.  The  reluctance  of  advertisers  to  use  me- 
diums carrying  objectionable  advertising  is  forcing  pub- 
lishers to  change  their  attitude  toward  it.  Eleven  states 
have  placed  laws  on  the  statute  books  forbidding  such 
advertising  and  providing  penalties  for  both  publisher 
and  medium.  This  is  no  place  to  go  into  a  discussion 
of  the  subject.  It  is  brought  up  as  one  of  the  processes 
in  the  evolution  of  advertising  which  are  carrying  it  to  a 
greater  efficiency.  As  a  concrete  example  of  the  stand 
taken  by  enlightened  publishers  note  these  extracts  from 
the  Curtis  Code : 

The  Curtis  Advertising  Code 

*  *  *  Our  first  consideration  is  the  protection  and  welfare 
of  our  readers,  and  our  second  consideration  is  so  to  con- 
duct our  advertising  columns  as  to  command  the  confidence 
of  our  readers  and  lead  them  to  a  greater  dependence  upon 
the  printed  message.     This  is  the  keynote  of  Curtis  policy. 

Along  with  this  is  the  purpose  to  protect  our  advertising 
clients,  to  discourage  unfair  competition,  and  to  safeguard  our 
publications  against  any  advertising  that  may  tend  to  injure 
our  advertising  columns  in  their  general  efficiency  and  stand- 
ing. 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  6 

•  •  •  While  the  reader  has  been  educated  to  accept  some 
exaggeration  as  "trade  talk,"  he  quickly  detects  and  resents 
a  note  of  insincerity  or  an  attempt  to  deceive,  and  if  he  dis- 
covers these,  or  failing  to  discover  them  is  seriously  cheated, 
ho  is  thereby  made  less  responsive  to  all  advertising. 

The  advertisement  which  wilfully  or  carelessly  defrauds 
becomes  worse  than  the  thief.  It  not  only  steals  from  its  vic- 
tims, but  destroys  the  confidence  which  is  fundamental  to  all 
business  and  essential  to  the  success  of  advertising. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  the  publisher  is  the 
detection  of  advertising  copy  which  intentionally  or  uninten- 
tionally misleads.  It  frequently  requires  the  wisdom  of  Solo- 
mon to  decide  what  deserves  to  be  admitted.  The  Curtis 
Publishing  Company  has  had  to  reject  many  thousand  dollars' 
worth  of  advertising  of  reputable  goods  solely  because  of  ill- 
advised  copy.  •  •  • 

If  all  advertising  men  were  convinced  merely  of  the  com- 
mercial importance  of  this  question  and  would  present  a 
united  front,  their  returns  from  advertising  would  be  increased 
many  fold,  for  with  an  increased  confidence  the  public  would 
depend  far  more  upon  advertising  for  guidance  in  buying. 
No  one  is  more  vitally  affected  than  the  individual  advertiser. 

It  is  our  purpose  to  protect  both  our  advertisers  and  our 
readers  from  all  copy  that  is  fraudulent  or  deceptive.  What 
is  perhaps  equally  important,  we  must  protect  honorable  and 
legitimate  advertisers  against  unfair  competition  in  every  pos- 
sible way.  It  is  our  experience  that  an  advertiser  need  not 
concern  himself  seriously  about  a  competitor's  exaggeration, 
except  to  take  full  advantage  of  the  strategic  position  gained 
thereby.  *  *  * 

We  are  striving  to  make  our  readers  feel  perfectly  safe  in 
dealing  with  our  advertisers  by  mail  or  in  purchasing  their 
goods  in  the  stores,  and  perfectly  confident  that  they  will  find 
such  goods  just  as  represented  in  print.  fApart  from  the  con- 
sideration of  honesty  as  a  principne,  TKis  self-evident  that 
this  unswennng  standard  benefits  the  public,  the  advertisers, 
and  the  publishers.     If  all  advertising  were  strictly  truthful, 


6  THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

the  purchasing  public  would  soon  recognize  the  fact  and  all 
advertising  would  be  many  times  more  profitableT^  Indeed, 
the  public  is  already  doing  much  to  make  advertising  more 
believable  and  dependable  by  writing  to  both  the  advertisers 
and  the  publishers  what  they  think  of  the  advertisements  they 
read,  and  by  directing  their  purchases  in  favor  of  the  de- 
pendable advertiser. 

It  is  not  enough  that  an  advertiser  means  well.  We  must 
also  be  certain  that  he  is  in  a  position  financially  and  other- 
wise to  carry  out  his  good  intentions  to  the  public's  satisfac- 
tion. 

Undue  boastfulness  and  exaggeration,  such  as  "the  best" 
and  "the  only,"  are  discouraged  in  an  endeavor  to  make  our 
columns  reasonable.  Our  experience  has  shown  not  only  that 
all  advertising  benefits  by  the  absence  of  undue  superlatives, 
but  that  even  to  the  individual  advertiser,  exaggeration  is 
unprofitable. 

The  day  when  advertisements  of  patent  medicines,  hopeless 
if  not  actually  dishonest  investment  schemes,  frauds  and  exag- 
gerations of  all  sorts,  were  common  in  reputable  magazines  is 
gone.  The  best  magazines  have  purged  themselves  largely  of 
these  evils. 

Abuses  still  exist,  but  the  public  judges  well  where  they 
exist  and  where  the  standards  are  strong.  They  are  learning 
to  know  what  magazines  they  can  trust.  The  result  has  been 
that  reputable  advertisers  are  becoming  more  and  more  dis- 
criminating in  the  selection  of  good  company  through  their 
choice  of  media. 

If  the  reader  sees  the  advertisements  of  a  long-standing 
advertiser  in  a  magazine  which  practices  common  honesty,  he 
has  a  double  guaranty  of  the  worth  of  the  article;  for  the 
magazine  has  scrutinized  and  accepted  it,  and  the  advertiser 
must  be  making  goods  which  satisfy  year  in  and  year  out. 

(The  rules  for  Censorship  of  Copy  are  given  in  Ap- 
pendix A.) 

Such  is  the  code  of  a  publisher  whose  three  magazines 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  7 

are  among  the  best  mediums  for  advertising.  Other 
publishers  of  other  magazines  have  similar  codes,  varying 
in  detail  but  alike  in  spirit. 

The  progress  thus  far  made  promises  well  for  the 
future  of  advertising.  The  greater  the  responsibility 
assumed  by  the  advertising  medium,  the  greater  the  con- 
fidence of  the  public.  This  whole  question  of  reliability 
is  only  one  part  of  a  very  definite  determination  of  those 
engaged  in  advertising  work  to  eliminate  waste  and  in- 
crease efficiency. 

§3 

If  it  is  waste  when  an  honest  advertisement  fails  of 
its  purpose  because  public  confidence  has  been  weakened 
by  being  imposed  on  too  often,  it  is  a  greater  waste  when 
advertising  creates  a  demand  for  goods  which  cannot  be 
obtained  by  the  inquirer.  It  has  become  the  duty  of  the 
advertising  man  to  see  that  advertising  does  not  precede 
distribution,  and  then  to  go  further  and  secure  distribu- 
tion. 

Beginning  with  this  .and  following  the 'goods  back  to 
the  factory  where  they  are  made,  scrutinizing  the  goods 
as  made,  wrapped,  packed,  named  and  trade-marked, 
with  the  one  idea  of  enhancing  their  salability,  their 
accessibility  and  their  visibility,  the  new  advertising  man 
finds  much  to  do.  This  field  of  work  which  has  grown  out 
of  the  old  methods  is  called  by  various  names,  such  as 
trade  aid,  merchandising,  research.  It  is  giving  to  ad- 
vertising a  definition  it  did  not  have  before.  IMore  than 
that,  it  is  enlisting  the  respectful  attention  of  manufac- 
turers who  were  before  deaf  to  advertising  possibilities. 
They  found  that  intelligent  distribution  based  on  im- 
proved sales  methods  stimulated  sales  even  before  the 


8  THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

advertising  was  applied.  That  advertising  when  finally 
prepared  grew  naturally  out  of  the  conditions  estab- 
lished; became,  as  it  were,  a  by-product  of  good  mer- 
chandising, and  so  was  saved  from  the  foolishness  and 
futility  which  in  the  past  grew  out  of  blind  effort  made 
without  a  clear  mental  picture  of  the  market  aimed  at 
and  the  right  form  of  appeal  to  influence  it. 

The  so-called  advertising  expert  then  is  the  man  who 
studies  the  causes  of  great  successes  with  the  idea  of 
applying  them  to  other  articles  and  other  markets.  It 
is  for  him  to  eliminate  as  far  as  possible  the  uncertainty, 
the  waste,  the  non-essentials ;  to  change  advertising  from 
an  art  to  a  science — or,  at  least,  to  a  profession  worthy 
of  the  ambition  and  energy  of  trained  minds. 


§4 

Advertising,  let  us  say,  is  a  force  by  which  some  far- 
seeing  man,  controlling  a  desirable  output  from  a  great 
factory,  secures  for  it  the  widest  possible  market  by 
utilizing  every  form  of  publicity,  and  every  method  of 
making  an  impression  upon  the  public ;  who  watches  its 
sales  on  the  one  hand  and  its  publicity  on  the  other ; 
who  knows  exactly  what  his  advertising  is  accomplishing 
and  what  it  is  failing  to  accomplish,  knows  where  to 
strengthen  it  and  where  to  weaken  it;  who,  considering 
the  entire  country  as  a  market,  adapts  his  advertising 
to  each  locality,  pushes  his  products  where  such  products 
may  be  sold,  and  leaves  uncultivated  the  places  where  no 
possible  market  may  be  made.  He  knows  something  of 
salesmanship,  something  of  the  law  of  supply  and  de- 
mand, a  great  deal  of  human  nature  and  the  best  meth- 
ods of  appealing  to  it;  has  a  vivid,  instinctive  sense  of 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  9 

the  power  of  repeated  impression ;  knows  something  of 
the  force  of  striking  display,  whether  expressed  in  color 
on  outdoor  posters  and  street-car  cards,  or  in  black  and 
white  and  in  type  in  newspapers  and  magazines;  and 
uses  all  these  as  a  means  to  his  end. 

Such  a  man,  realizing  that  there  are  in  this  country 
so  many  mouths  to  be  fed,  so  many  hands  and  faces  to 
be  washed,  so  many  bodies  to  be  clothed,  so  many  feet  to 
be  shoti,  makes  a  foot!,  a  soap,  clothing,  or  a  shoe,  and 
then  launches  out  boldly,  remembering  that  just  as 
long  as  people  continue  to  be  born  and  grow  up,  there 
will  be  more  mouths,  more  hands,  more  faces,  more  bodies 
and  more  feet;  and  until  the  sum  of  human  wants 
changes,  there  will  be  the  same  steady  demands  and 
needs.  He  then  proceeds  to  find  means  for  making  his 
article  in  every  home  and  in  every  mind  a  synonym  for 
something  which  will  supply  one  of  these  wants.  In  so 
doing  he  realizes  to  its  fullest  extent  the  power  of  that 
mighty  engine,  advertising. 

Advertising  modifies  the  course  of  a  people's  daily 
thoughts,  gives  them  new  words,  new  phrases,  new  ideas, 
new  fashions,  new  prejudices  and  new  customs.  In  the 
same  way  it  obliterates  old  sets  of  words  and  phrases, 
fashions  and  customs.  It  may  be  doubted  if  any  other 
one  force,  the  school,  the  church  and  the  press  excepted, 
has  so  great  an  influence  as  advertising.  To  it  we 
largely  owe  the  prevalence  of  good  roads,  rubber  tires, 
open  plumbing,  sanitary  underwear,  water  filters,  hy- 
gienic waters,  vacuum  cleaners,  automobiles,  kitchen 
cabinets,  pure  foods.  These  are  only  a  few  of  the  things 
which  the  public  has  been  taught  by  advertising  to  use, 
to  believe  in,  and  to  demand. 

The  people  who  buy  these  things  do  not  write  to  the 
manufacturers.    They  are  the  customers  of  hundreds  of 


10        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

thousands  of  retail  stores.  They  come  and  ask  for  ar- 
ticles they  have  seen  advertised  and  they  continue  to 
buy  them.  They  buy,  believe,  and  think  the  things  that 
the  advertiser  wants  them  to  buy,  believe,  and  think. 
The  man  who  can  so  plan  advertising  as  to  bring  about 
these  results  exercises  professional  ability  of  a  high  order. 


§5 

By  trade-marking  a  number  of  necessary  articles,  such 
as  food,  wearing  apparel  and  soaps,  and  making  them 
so  well  known  that  they  become  staple,  the  methods  of 
commerce  have  been  simplified  beyond  belief.  Every 
man  engaged  in  buying  and  selling  such  goods  is  now 
able  to  perform  the  same  transaction  in  less  time  than 
formerly.  Take,  for  instance,  the  soda-biscuit.  For- 
merly it  was  supplied  loose,  in  bulk  from  a  barrel,  from 
which  the  grocer  weighed  out  the  necessary  quantity. 
The  method  was  uncleanly;  the  crispness  was  lost.  It 
required  an  unnecessary  number  of  handlings  which  took 
time  and  were  distasteful.  The  name,  soda-biscuit,  meant 
several  kinds  of  biscuit  in  bulk;  the  customer  seldom 
knew  them  apart;  the  most  intelligent  thing  she  could 
do  was  to  point  them  out. 

To-day,  every  housewife  is  familiar  with  the  name  of 
a  biscuit  in  a  package,  wrapped  first  in  a  sanitary, 
waxed,  air-and-moisture-proof  wrapper,  then  in  a  com- 
pact, handy  carton,  and  finally  in  a  decorative  wrapper. 
This  package  would  now  be  recognized  at  a  glance  by  a 
large  percentage  of  the  population  of  the  United  States. 
The  housewife  simply  gives  to  the  grocer  the  name  of 
that  particular  biscuit;  and  the  grocer  takes  down  the 
package.    The  price  is  no  higher  than  was  paid  formerly 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  11 

for  biscuit  in  bulk.  The  package  will  keep  indefinitely 
and  only  a  small  part  of  the  grocer's  time  has  been 
occupied  in  waiting  upon  his  customer.  The  grocer, 
when  sending  his  order  to  the  jobber  or  giving  it  to  the 
"drummer,"  asks  for  so  many  cases  of  this  biscuit  and 
nothing  more  need  be  said.  Tlius  the  work  of  selling 
is  simplified.  Here  we  see  one  of  the  commercial  changes 
wrought  by  advertising. 

The  house  which  manufactures  soda-biscuit  has  been 
able,  by  advertising,  to  increa.se  its  output  tremendously. 
This  increase  of  output  has  cut  down  the  cost  of  manu- 
facture. The  maker  is  able  to  supply  more  and  better 
goods  for  the  same  money;  the  goods  have  a  wider  cir- 
culation, are  better  known  and  a  higher  standard  is 
kept.  The  maker  cannot  allow  his  product  to  deteriorate 
in  any  way;  it  has  become  known  for  its  excellence 
through  the  advertising,  and  it  must  live  up  to  that  ex- 
cellence. Advertising  implies  a  contract  between  the 
maker  and  the  public  always  to  deliver  the  same  goods 
under  that  same  name.  The  name  has  become  the  great- 
est asset.  It  may  represent  millions  in  publicity — pub- 
licity obtained  through  advertising. 

Only  the  initiated  can  realize  the  amount  of  work  that 
such  a  plan,  successfully  carried  out,  entails.  It  repre- 
sents nearly  every  form  of  advertising.  It  represents  the 
coining  of  a  name  that  is  unique  without  being  grotesque, 
and  so  euphonious  that  it  may  be  remembered  easily 
and  thus  become  a  part  of  the  familiar  vocabulary  of 
the  people ;  designing  a  package  so  individual  and  char- 
acteristic that  it  will  be  recognized  at  a  glance  and  will 
form  an  advertisement  as  it  stands ;  advertising  in  news- 
papers and  magazines;  announcements  in  the  trade 
papers  which  are  read  by  the  grocer  and  other  dealers; 
posters  upon  house-tops,  beside  the  right  of  way  of  great 


12        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

railroads;  posters  upon  hoardings  around  buildings  in 
the  process  of  construction,  upon  the  stands  of  elevated 
and  other  railway-stations;  electric  signs  on  the  tops 
of  tall  buildings;  names  on  sails  of  coasting  and  fishing 
vessels ;  various  kinds  of  printed  matter  sent  to  the  job- 
ber, to  the  salesman,  to  the  grocer,  and  to  the  consumer. 
In  addition  to  these  things,  advertising  requires  an 
army  of  men  to  carry  out  the  plans.  Every  part  of  the 
work  must  be  mapped  out.  The  salesmen  who  sell  the 
product  are  only  one  contingent.  The  chain  of  jobbers 
who  supply  retail  grocers  everywhere  are  part  of  the 
plan.  The  grocer  must  be  supplied,  not  only  with  goods 
to  put  upon  his  shelf,  but  with  attractive  counter  slips, 
"hangers,"  window-cards,  "cut-outs,"  posters  and  other 
forms  of  lithographed  matter,  which  will  appeal  to  the 
eyes  and  make  an  impression  upon  the  minds  of  buyers. 
All  this  matter  must  be  prepared,  packed,  and  sent  out 
so  as  to  reach  the  grocer  at  the  appointed  time.  Then 
there  is  the  work  of  preparing  designs  for  magazines 
and  newspapers,  lithographs  for  posters  and  street-car 
cards,  and  getting  them  to  their  proper  destination  and 
displayed  in  the  proper  way.  The  entire  machinery 
must  be  kept  in  motion  year  after  year. 


This  is  the  nearest  one  can  come  to  a  definition  of 
modern  advertising.  It  is  as  hard  to  obtain  an  idea  of 
what  advertising  really  is  from  a  description  of  the 
machinery  by  which  it  is  accomplished,  as  it  is  to  ob- 
tain one  of  the  nature  of  electricity  by  a  visit  to  a 
power-house.  Thinking  men  have  begun  to  recognize  it 
as  a  great  force,  which  depends  much  on  constant  repeti- 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  13 

tion  and  much  on  liabits  of  thought.  Constant  repetition 
of  one  idea  to  a  certain  number  of  people  will  at  last 
impress  that  idea  upon  those  people's  minds.  People 
who  get  into  the  habit  of  buying  a  certain  thing  are  apt 
to  continue  the  habit.  If  one  set  of  people  may  be 
persuaded  to  buy  a  given  article  at  a  given  price, 
another  set  of  people  may  be  induced  to  do  the 
same  thing.  If  people  have  been  persuaded  to  buy 
such  an  article  and  find  their  expectations  fulfilled,  they 
are  apt  to  go  on  purchasing  the  article  indefinitely.  It 
is  upon  this  habit  that  the  ultimate  profits  of  publicity 
depend. . 

Perhaps  no  prophecy  as  to  the  future  of  advertising 
would  be  excessive.  It  is  estimated  that  already  a  billion 
dollars  is  spent  each  year  for  advertising.^  A  single 
house  is  credited  with  an  appropriation  of  three  million 
a  year.  No  modern  field  of  industry  shows  larger  pos- 
sibilities of  development.  The  work  of  the  present  day, 
skillful  and  intelligent  as  it  is,  is  a  beginning.  Despite 
the  number  of  experts  at  work,  despite  the  greater  exact- 
ness of  modern  methods,  advertising  to-day  is  by  no 
means  so  thorough  and  effective  as  it  should  be.  There 
are  many  men  who  know  how  to  play  skillfully  upon  the 
prejudices,  tastes,  likes  and  habits  of  a  nation ;  but  there 
is  not  yet  a  man  who  can  tell  definitely  how  much  public- 
ity any  given  dollar  will  buy.  Possibly  there  never  will 
be  such  a  man.  Still,  advertising  is  daily  approaching 
a  state  of  greater  exactness.    The  best  advertisers  have 

*  If  the  aggregate  amount  of  money  spent  for  advertising  space 
in  periodicals,  given  by  the  U.  S.  Census  (1909)  as  $337,596,288, 
be  taken  as  one-third  of  the  total  amount  spent  in  advertising,  it 
gives  a  grand  total  of  over  one  billion  dollars.  The  remaining 
two-thirds  is  spent  for  street-car  cards,  billboards  and  painted 
bulletins,  printed  matter,  commissions  paid  to  advertising  agents 
and  salaries  paid  to  advertising  departments. 


14        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

their  advertising  campaigns  so  well  in  hand  that  they  are 
almost  sure  to  produce  results.  They  have  learned  by 
doing — a  costly  way,  but  the  only  one  possible  to  pio- 
neers. 

The  present  phase  of  advertising  work  that  is  at  once 
most  promising  and  most  interesting,  is  the  possibility  of 
using  this  experience  of  isolating  advertisers  to  lay  down 
surer  laws^  better  methods,  sounder  practice.  Efforts  are 
being  made  in  various  directions.  National  advertisers 
have  organized  primarily  to  secure  trustworthy  data 
about  med^iums  and  agents  by  exchanging  information 
or  sharing  the  expense  of  investigation.  Several  univer- 
sities and  some  publishers  have  independently  conducted 
bureaus  of  trade  research,  the  results  from  which  are 
available  to  manufacturers  and  merchants.  The  lead- 
ing advertising  journal,  Printers'  Ink,  devotes  most  of 
its  space  to  analyzing  the  successes  and  failures  of  ad- 
vertisers. But  the  great  work  of  making  advertising  suc- 
cessful still  rests  with  the  advertising  agencies,  business 
houses  organized  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  the  manu- 
facturer who  desires  to  increase  the  sale  of  his  goods 
by  advertising. 

§7 

The  early  advertising  agencies  were  primitive.  They 
were  really  agencies  representing  lists  of  newspapers, 
whose  rates  for  space,  location,  and  even  their  very 
names  were  unknown  to  the  advertiser.  The  agent 
charged  all  he  could  get,  and  paid  as  little  as  possible. 
A  great  deal  has  happened  since  then  to  produce  the 
modern  advertising  agency.  It  is  interesting  as  history, 
but  not  relevant.  The  mediums,  their  locations,  rates, 
circulation,  class,  clientele,  possibilities,  are  now  known 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  16 

to  all,  or  at  least  open  to  all.  The  possession  of 
such  information  does  not  make  an  advertising  agency. 
Frequently  the  advertiser  posses.ses  the  same  infor- 
mation. If  not,  he  can  easily  obtain  it.  This  informa- 
tion is  merely  one  of  the  tools  with  which  the  agent 
works. 

The  agency,^  as  we  call  it  for  convenience,  is  an  or- 
ganization which  varies  in  size,  but  which  in  even  the 
smallest  organization  consists  of  at  least  eight  depart- 
ments. Roughly,  one  man  sees  clients,  present  and  pro- 
spective; one  man  makes  investigations  into  the  adver- 
tising possibilities ;  one  prepares  plan  and  copy ;  one  has 
charge  of  the  art  work;  one  of  the  typography;  one 
deals  with  mediums,  and  there  is  nearly  always  an  office 
manager  who,  among  other  things,  has  charge  of  the 
checking  up  of  the  advertising  as  it  appears  in  the  vari- 
ous mediums  and  the  rendering  of  bills  for  it  to  the 
advertiser.  In  a  very  small  agency  one  man  may  do  two 
or  even  three  of  these  things.  In  a  very  large  agency 
each  department  head  has  understudies  and  sub-assist- 
ants all  doing  phases  of  the  same  work.  To  these  men 
are  given  names  more  or  less  accurate,  which  have  been 
carelessly  accepted  and  are  generally  understood  among 
advertising  men,  such  as  rate  man,  plan  man,  copy  man, 
art  manager,  commercial  artist,  layout  man,  checker. 
The  advertising  agency  then  is  a  group  or  association 
of  men,  each  a  specialist  in  some  phase  of  advertising 
work,  whose  united  experience  shows  the  advertiser  how 
to  use  these  mediums  to  sell  his  goods. 

*  The  name  is  a  very  poor  description,  and  is  a  survival  of  the 
day  when  advertising  agents  really  represented  a  group  of 
mediums.  Such  men  are  to-day  called  "special  agents."  Nearly 
all  newspapers  are  represented  by  special  agents  in  New  York 
and  other  centers  where  advertising  originates. 


16        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§8 

A  wonderful  array  of  information  about  mediums  is 
available  to  him  who  knows  how  to  use  it  right.  The 
circulation  is  given  by  states  and  by  towns;  the  percen- 
tage in  towns  according  to  population,  the  average  wealth 
and  social  condition  of  its  subscribers,  the  percentage 
that  owns  taxable  property,  or  automobiles,  or  other  evi- 
dences of  purchasing  power.  Even  photographs  of  the 
homes  of  subscribers  in  certain  towns  are  given  as  testi- 
mony. Many  mediums  go  farther  than  this  in  their 
efforts  to  gain  the  patronage  of  the  advertiser  and  help 
him  to  make  good.  They  maintain  service  departments 
to  prepare  his  advertising  matter,  trade  investigators  to 
secure  information  for  him,  missionaries  to  build  up 
friendly  relations  with  dealers  who  sell  his  goods. 
Special  energy  is  devoted  to  tying  up  the  advertising 
with  the  retail  trade.  The  great  purpose  of  most  adver- 
tising is  to  send  a  customer  to  a  store  to  buy  the  adver- 
tised article.  It  is  just  as  important  that  the  dealer 
should  have  the  goods,  as  that  the  customer  should  have 
the  desire  to  buy.  To  this  end  has  been  devoted  much  of 
the  new  thought  that  has  been  brought  into  advertising. 


Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  the  work  of  advertising  is 
participated  in  by  three  great  units.  The  advertiser 
makes  goods  which  he  desires  to  sell  by  advertising.  He 
employs  an  advertising  agent  for  the  purpose.  The  ad- 
vertising agency  is  really  an  organization  made  up  of 
various  specialists.  The  agent  in  carrying  out  his  plan 
uses  a  selection  from  a  multitude  of  possible  mediums. 


WHAT  IS  ADVERTISING?  17 

The  selection  of  these  mediums,  and  the  right  use  of 
them,  are  a  part  of  the  service  which  the  agent  renders. 
These  three  primaries — the  advertiser,  the  agent,  antl 
the  medium,  and  their  respective  parts  in  the  work  of 
advertising — must  be  considered  in  whole  or  in  part  in 
any  book  on  advertising.  The  advertiser  usually  has  a 
manager  for  his  advertising,  just  as  he  has  a  manager 
for  his  sales.  In  the  more  recent  development,  the 
advertising  department  is  a  part  of  the  sales  depart- 
ment. Frequently,  and  with  the  best  results,  the 
advertising  manager  and  sales  manager  are  one  and 
the  same. 

All  of  these  great  departments  will  be  better  under- 
stood after  reading  the  next  three  chapters  in  which  a 
detailed  description  of  each  is  given.  The  mediums 
will  be  treated  under  the  general  heading  of  Sellers  of 
Space.  The  advertising  agents  and  all  others  who  offer 
service  to  the  advertiser  are  called  Sellers  of  Advertis- 
ing. The  men  who  have  goods  to  sell,  for  which  they 
employ  the  two  departments  already  named,  are  put  in 
the  department  of  Buyers  of  Advertising.  These  are 
not  the  customary  terms,  but  they  serve  better  to  keep 
clear  in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  phases  of  advertising 
which  an  unsatisfactory  terminology  makes  confusing 
even  to  the  advertising  man. 

When  you  are  told  that  a  man  does  advertising  work 
you  do  not  know  whether  he  sells  space  in  a  medium, 
prepares  campaigns  for  an  advertiser,  or  is  the  adver- 
tiser's employee  with  the  specific  title  of  "advertising 
manager."  An  advertising  manager  may  be  the  chief 
representative  of  a  publication  or  he  may  be  handling 
the  advertising  of  a  department  store.  An  agent  may  be 
a  professional  advertising  service  man,  or  he  may  "rep- 
resent" a  string  of  out-of-town  newspapers. 


18        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

But  all  who  make  their  living  from  advertising  are 
found  in  one  of  these  three  grand  divisions — the  Sellers 
of  Space,  the  Sellers  of  Advertising  and  the  Buyers  of 
Advertising. 


CHAPTER   II 

SELLERS    OF   SPACE 

§    1 

Advertising  mediums  undoubtedly  preceded  advertis- 
ing, so  that  the  reason  for  considering  them  first  is  both 
logical  and  chronological.  The  tools  by  which  a  result  is 
effected  are  described  before  their  use.  The  word  "me- 
dium" is  used  as  applied  to  any  vehicle  of  advertising, 
whether  it  is  a  newspaper  which  circulates  and  carries 
the  advertisement  to  the  reader,  or  a  billboard  which 
remains  stationary  while  the  reader  comes  to  it.  Adver- 
tising mediums  may  be  divided,  not  very  scientifically, 
into  four  great  classes:  newspapers,  magazines,  street- 
cars and  billboards.  The  lack  of  exactness  is  shown  by 
the  way  the  word  "magazine,"  for  instance,  is 
stretched  to  cover  a  variety  of  publications  having  a 
national  circulation,  as  opposed  to  the  purely  local  cir- 
culation of  a  newspaper.  ' '  Billboard ' '  advertising  is  also 
too  narrow  a  name  for  the  fourth  division.  Painted  bul- 
letins, which  are  not  strictly  billboards,  belong  in  this 
class.  "Mural  advertising"  would  perhaps  be  a  better 
term,  though  not  recognized  by  those  doing  this  kind  of 
work. 


The  newspaper  is  probably  the  best  advertising  me- 
dium.    Its  frequency  of  issue   offers  opportunity  for 

19 


20        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

quick  action.  It  is  a  very  human  production.  It  grows 
out  of  the  daily  need  of  a  wide-awake  people  desirous 
of  knowing  what  has  happened  in  the  world  the  past 
twenty-four  hours.  As  an  instrument  of  information 
and  instruction  rather  than  of  amusement  and  enter- 
tainment, it  becomes  a  sort  of  natural  marketplace  in 
which  to  offer  goods  for  sale. 

It  is  fair  to  note  that  until  but  recently  newspapers 
have  been  slow  to  appreciate  the  possibilities  of  adver- 
tising. This  tardiness  becomes  more  striking  when  com- 
pared with  the  progressive  attitude  of  the  magazines. 
Starting  with  some  natural  disadvantages  as  compared 
with  newspapers,  they  have  made  the  most  of  two  fav- 
oring conditions.  Their  national  circulation  has  made 
it  possible  to  offer  the  advertiser  a  comparatively  national 
distribution  at  a  comparatively  lower  cost.  More  pains- 
taking manufacturing  methods  offer  printing  possibilities 
for  advertising  not  obtainable  in  the  more  ephemeral 
newspaper.  Speed  and  economy  of  production  are  the 
cardinal  considerations  in  newspaper  making.  The 
newspaper  is  dead  every  twenty-four  hours.  The  maga- 
zine is  the  reading  matter  for  a  greater  leisure.  Its  life 
is  frequently  a  month;  always  at  least  a  week.  Its 
advertising  pages  are  made  up  more  carefully  and 
printed  more  slowly  and  upon  paper  of  finer  surface, 
than  is  possible  to  the  newspaper.  Its  covers  offer  op- 
portunities for  the  use  of  color  in  an  unusual  degree. 
Inserts  in  color  may  be  and  are  frequently  interleaved 
among  the  black-and-white  pages. 

It  is  true  that  some  newspapers,  on  account  of  their 
smaller  circulations,  are  models  of  typography  and  print- 
ing, comparing  most  favorably  in  this  respect  with  the 
appearance  of  many  magazines.  The  Saturday  Evening 
Post  prints  each  week  at  a  high  speed  an  edition  of  two 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  «1 

and  a  quarter  million,  while  preserving  a  handsome  and 
finished  appearance.  Hut  the  Saturday  Evening  I'ost  is 
not  a  newspaper,  and  is  frt-e  from  the  tremendous  neces- 
sity of  publishing  the  news  while  it  is  news. 

By  skillfully  playing  up  their  real  advantages,  by  in- 
telligent cociperation  with  the  advertiser,  and  by  a  recep- 
tive attitude  toward  movements  that  have  certainly  bet- 
tered advertising,  the  magazines  have  for  years  carried 
a  very  large  volume  of  advertising.  The  .newspapers  are 
beginning  to  realize  these  facts  and  to  govern  themselves 
accordingly.  There  always  has  been  and  always  will  be 
more  newspaper  advertising  than  any  other  kind  because 
the  newspapers  so  greatly  outnumber  all  other  mediums. 


§  3 

It  is  not  necessary  to  describe  a  newsfpaper.  Everyone 
has  seen  one.  But  it  may  be  well  to  give  some  sort  of 
a  classification  which,  while  not  exact  or  scientific,  is 
understood  in  most  agencies  and  by  most  advertisers. 
This  divides  newspapers  into  metropolitan  dailies,  coun- 
try dailies  and  country  weeklies,  the  latter  again  being 
distinguished  as  "all-home  prints"  or  "ready  prints" 
(sometimes  known  as  "patent  insides").  The  metro- 
politan newspaper  usually  publishes  both  a  daily  and  a 
Sunday  edition,  which  are  often  considered  separately  by 
advertisers.  This  Sunday  newspaper,  while  carrying 
one  or  two  news  sections,  is  calculated  to  furnish  general 
reading  matter  for  the  day  of  greatest  leisure.  These 
features  take  the  form  of  magazine,  half-tone  and  chil- 
dren's sections.  A  complete  magazine,  usually  known  as 
a  Sunday  supplement,  is  folded  into  the  Sunday  editions 
of  many  newspapers.    These  supplements  are  edited  and 


22        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

printed  by  separate  organizations,  and  sold  to  news- 
papers on  the  syndicate  basis,  to  one  newspaper  in  a 
city.  They .  accept  advertising  independently  of  the 
newspaper's  own  advertising  department.  They  obtain 
by  their  method  of  distribution  very  large  circulations 
and  are  important  advertising  mediums. 


§4 

The  division  between  the  metropolitan  daily  and  the 
country  daily  is  purely  an  arbitrary  one.  Metropolitan 
dailies  are  practically  the  papers  published  in  the  cities 
of  the  first  rank  in  the  United  States.  All  other  dailies 
are  country  dailies. 

Most  weekly  newspapers  are  individually  very  unim- 
portant publications,  but  in  numbers  they  exceed  all 
other  publications  put  together.  There  are  13,903  weekly 
newspapers.  These  are  the  newspapers  of  towns  too 
small  to  support  a  daily,  or  newspapers  representing  a 
minority  political  party  in  a  town  where  the  larger 
political  parties  have  daily  newspapers. 

The  existence  of  so  great  a  number  of  weekly  news- 
papers is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  they  have  received 
more  assistance  from  the  Post-Office  Department  than 
any  other  form  of  periodical,  and  to  the  advantages 
furnished  them  by  the  ready-print  companies,  the  paper 
being  bought  half  printed  very  cheaply.  Weekly  news- 
papers are  usually  the  home  papers  of  a  country  or  farm- 
ing district,  and  are  good  advertising  mediums  for  that 
reason.  A  home  paper  gives  local  -influence  to  the  adver- 
tisements which  it  carries. 

In  the  very  smallest  towns,  the  expense  of  printing 
even  a  four-page  paper  once  a  week  is  so  great  that  the 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  23 

country  editor  buys  his  paper  with  one  side  printed. 
This  side  contains  a  synopsis  of  the  news  of  the  worhl, 
with,  perhaps,  ilhistratod,  fashion  and  literary  matt(.'r. 
The  other  side,  printed  on  the  home  press,  is  made  up  of 
local  news.  This  is  the  cheapest  form  of  newspaper  pub- 
lished. The  circulation  very  seldom  reaches  more  than 
a  thousand  and  usually  hovers  around  half  that  num- 
ber. 

The  business  of  supplying  "ready-prints"  to  country 
newspapers  has  developed  into  a  very  large  one.  These 
organizations  are  known  by  the  name  of  *  *  lists, ' '  as,  for 
instance,  the  Kellogg  Lists,  or  the  Western  Lists.  The 
general  expression  is  "cooperative  newspapers."  The 
Western  Newspaper  Union,  controlling  both  Kellogg  and 
Western  Lists,  is  the  largest  of  these  organizations,  sup- 
plying 5,971  of  the  6,400  newspapers  published  on  the 
cooperative  plan.^ 

These  "ready-prints"  contain  a  limited  amount  of 
advertising  of  a  general  nature,  including  proprietary 
remedies  or  other  articles  that  appeal  to  an  agricultural 
population.  This  advertising  is  not  expensive ;  and  it 
calls  for  no  outlay  for  plates.  Only  one  plate  or  electro- 
type need  be  made  and  sent  to  the  home  office  of  the 
list,  although  it  may  appear  in  2,000  papers,  the  insides 
of  which  are  all  printed  at  the  same  time.  This  business 
is  entirely  distinct  from  the  "plate"  business,  by  which 
columns  of  matter  in  stereotyped  form,  consisting  of 
news  features  and  miscellaneous  matter,  are  sent  to  the 
larger  papers.  These  latter  are  used  to  pad  the  news- 
paper, being  placed  on  the  same  page  with  matter  set 
in  the  local  otxice.  This  practice  is  tending  to  destroy  the 
individuality  of  the  country  press. 

*  See  Appendix  B. 


24        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  5 

Advertising  space  in  a  newspaper  is  measured  in  the 
large  papers  by  the  agate  line/  and  in  the  small  papers 
by  the  inch.  There  is  usually  an  excessive  number  of 
classifications,  each  one  resulting  in  a  different  rate. 
These  classifications  add  to  the  work  of  the  advertising 
agent  without  any  compensating  advantage  to  the  news- 
paper. Modern  and  progressive  newspapers  are  adopt- 
ing a  flat  line  rate  which  holds  in  all  cases  for  all  kinds 
of  advertising,  with  the  exception  of  classified  advertis- 
ing, but  such  papers  are  the  exception.  Usually  the 
newspaper  has  a  line  rate  which  applies  to  ordinary  dis- 
play ;  a  special  department  store  rate ;  probably  a  pub- 
lisher's  rate,  which  is  lower  than  the  regular  line  rate; 
discounts  for  time — ^that  is,  for  ads  that  run  every  day 
or  every  week  for  a  given  period ;  discounts  for  quantity, 
as  for  five  thousand,  ten  thousand  and  twenty  thousand 
lines.  Some  of  them  have  what  is  called  the  most  favored 
nation  rate — that  is,  a  special  discount  to  the  advertiser 
who  uses  as  much  space  in  a  given  newspaper  as  he  does 
in  any  other  newspaper  in  that  town.     Then  there  are 

*  Practically  all  advertising  is  now  measured  by  the  "agate" 
line,  which  is  one-fourteenth  of  an  inch.  Strictly,  an  agate  type 
body  is  somewhat  larger  than  one-fourteenth  of  an  inch.  The 
modern  agate  type  body  measures  5^/^  points  upon  the  point  sys- 
tem, but  it  is  not  the  basis  of  measurement,  as  practically  all 
advertisements  when  printed  are  measured  by  the  fourteen-lines- 
to-the-inch  advertising  rule.  When  an  advertisement  is  set  in 
5V2  point  agate  solid,  without  any  display,  then  the  actual  num- 
ber of  printed  lines  is  generally  counted,  and  the  advertising 
measure  does  not  apply.  By  the  point  system,  nonpareil  has  be- 
come 6  point;  brevier,  8  point;  pica,  12  point,  and  so  on,  the  type 
bodies  being  exact  multiples  of  a  point,  a  point  being  1-72  of 
an  inch.  An  agate  line  measures  up  and  down  the  column,  and 
does  not  consider  the  width  of  the  column  at  all. 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  25 

a  number  of  scales  for  the  clasNifietl  page,  properly 
known  as  "want  ads,"  in  which  the  lowest  rate  is  for 
an  employee  seeking  a  position,  and  so  on  up  to  special 
advertising  of  auto^nobiles  or  houses  for  sale  or  rent, 
which  rates  are  much  higher. 

Therefore,  the  rate  card  of  a  metropolitan  newspaper 
is  a  long  and  complicated  document,  requiring  consider- 
able time  and  attention  on  the  part  of  the  rate  man  or 
the  advertising  agent  to  decipher. 

A  part  of  the  work  of  the  organization  of  advertising 
agents  is  to  bring  about  a  stamlardization  of  rates,  com- 
missions, cash  discounts  and  all  other  details  pertaining 
to  the  relation  of  a  newspaper  to  its  advertisers.  An 
easily  deciphered  rate  card  and  a  uniform  flat  rate  would 
do  much  to  improve  the  relations  between  newspapers 
and  agents. 

The  country  daily  does  not  have  so  complicated  a  rate 
card,  but  as  each  paper  follows  its  own  ideas  in  regard 
to  the  rates  and  the  presentation  of  them,  the  variety 
of  cards  makes  it  difficult  to  estimate  them  satisfactorily. 
Also,  many  of  them  are  very  indifferent  in  their  business 
relations  to  foreign  ^  advertisers  and  advertising  agents, 
and  leave  much  to  be  desired  in  the  way  of  following 
agreements  and  instructions  in  the  insertion  of  advertis- 
ing in  the  right  position  and  upon  the  right  day.  A  good 
deal  of  the  time  of  an  advertising  agency  is  devoted  to 
checking  up  the  vast  number  of  small  newspapers  and 
correcting  wrong  insertions  and  securing  adjustments, 
on  account  of  wilful  neglect  of  orders.  Nevertheless, 
these  same  papers  solicit  "foreign"  advertising,  and 
most  of  them  keep  representatives  in  New  York,  Chicago 
and  other  cities  to  secure  such  advertising. 

*  *  *  Foreign ' '  advertisers  as  distinguished  from  local  adver- 
tisers. 


26        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

To  find  and  keep  track  of  papers  not  so  represented — 
the  very  small  dailies  and  country  weeklies — ^most 
advertising  agents  use  a  newspaper  directory  and 
open  correspondence  with  these  papers,  first,  to  se- 
cure rate  cards,  and  then  to  send  out  the  orders  for  ad- 
vertising. 

The  amount  of  clerical  labor  involved  in  placing  ad- 
vertising in  the  smaller  papers  makes  this  very  expen- 
sive to  the  agent,  while  amounting  in  money  to  very  little 
as  far  as  each  newspaper  is  concerned. 


§  6 

Newspaper  circulation  is  one  of  the  subjects  to  which 
considerable  study  has  been  given  by  advertisers.  Only 
recently  has  there  been  any  disposition  on  the  part  of 
any  great  number  of  newspapers  to  render  actual  re- 
turns of  their  circulation  to  advertisers.  Some  of  the 
leading  and  more  progressive  metropolitan  newspapers 
have  for  years  rendered  very  complete  circulation  re- 
ports, and  such  papers  have  long  been  the  first  choice  of 
advertisers  in  their  territories. 

For  many  years  the  only  statistics  about  newspaper 
circulation  obtainable  have  been  in  the  newspaper  direc- 
tories. George  P.  Rowell  &  Company  published  what 
was  the  best  newspaper  directory — the  American  News- 
paper Directory.  This  Directory  classified  circulation 
according  to  a  report  which  the  responsible  man  in  each 
newspaper  was  compelled  to  fill  out  and  sign.  This  re- 
port required  the  publisher  to  set  down  the  actual  figures 
for  each  day's  circulation  for  a  year,  divide  that  gross 
amount  by  the  total  number  of  issues,  and  sign  this  state- 
ment himself  as  his  actual  average  daily  circulation. 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  27 

To  such  a  newspaper  the  Directory  gave  credit  for  prov- 
in«?  tlie  circulation  claimed. 

The  Directory  carried  a  standing  offer  of  one  hun- 
dred dollars  to  any  foreman,  pressman  or  other  employee 
of  a  newspaper  who  would  bring  satisfactory  evidence 
that  the  statement  so  made  out  and  signed  was  not  cor- 
rect. In  all  the  time  Mr.  Rowell  published  the  Directory 
this  reward  was  claimed  but  twice. 

Before  Mr.  Rowell  died  the  American  Newspaper  Di- 
rectory was  sold  to  N.  W,  Ayer  &  Son,  who  now  pub- 
lish it,  and  it  is  to-day  probably  the  best  directory  and 
as  accurate  a  guide  to  circulation  as  such  a  book  can  be, 
when  it  is  remembered  that  there  are  some  twenty-two 
thousand  publications  published  in  the  United  States. 

The  new  publishers  of  the  Directory  have  adopted  a 
somewhat  different  plan.  They  keep  an  expert  news- 
paper man  traveling  from  town  to  town,  who  has  a  staff 
of  auditors.  Any  newspaper  that  is  willing  to  submit  to 
an  audit  by  this  staff,  and  pay  for  it,  may  have  its  cir- 
culation vouched  for  by  the  publishers  of  the  Direc- 
tory. 

Recently  the  American  Association  of  Advertisers  has 
maintained  an  auditing  department  which  from  time  to 
time,  on  request,  will  make  an  audit  of  the  circulation  of 
any  newspaper  or  magazine  and  furnish  a  copy  of  that 
audit  to  each  member  of  the  association. 

These  audits  have  been  accepted  generally  by  adver- 
tisers as  authoritative,  and  most  publications  so  audited 
usually  publish  the  audit  and  send  it  to  all  advertisers. 

All  such  organizations  will  probably  be  displaced  by 
the  newly  formed  Audit  Bureau  of  Circulations  whose 
membership  is  made  up  of  representatives  from  the  three 
great  departments  of  advertising — the  publishers,  the 
agents  and  the  advertisers — or,  as  this  book  classifies 


28        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

them,  the  sellers  of  space,  the  sellers  of  advertising  and 
the  buyers  of  advertising. 

This  Association  has  raised  a  permanent  fund  to  pay 
for  a  staff  of  experts  and  all  expenses  connected  with 
audits  of  circulation  of  every  kind  of  advertising  me- 
dium, and  will  give  to  each  one  of  its  members  from 
time  to  time  an  accurate  statement  of  the  circulation  of 
each  medium  for  that  member 's  permanent  files. 


§7         - 

The  natural  circulation  of  a  newspaper  is  the  number 
of  people  who  voluntarily  subscribe  for  it  or  who  buy  it 
every  day.  Very  few  publications,  however,  are  content 
with  this  natural  circulation.  Various  methods  are 
adopted  to  force  this  circulation  up,  because  circulation 
is  the  chief  commodity  the  publisher  has  to  sell  the  ad- 
vertiser. Large  newspapers  maintain  a  circulation  de- 
partment in  charge  of  a  circulation  manager,  and  this 
man  has  a  corps  of  canvassers  who  from  time  to  time 
cover  the  entire  available  territory  of  that  newspaper, 
soliciting  subscriptions  from  house  to  house.  In  addition 
to  this,  various  schemes  are  adopted,  such  as  voting  con- 
tests for  the  most  popular  school  teacher  or  politician, 
with  prizes,  such  as  trips  abroad,  or  grand  pianos,  or 
automobiles,  for  the  successful  winners.  Advertisers  feel 
that  circulation  obtained  in  this  way  is  not  so  valuable 
for  their  purpose  as  the  circulation  among  people  who 
buy  the  newspaper  for  its  own  sake  without  any  outside 
pressure.  The  newspaper  which  has  a  strong  editorial 
policy,  which  gives  the  news  fully  and  unbiased,  which  is. 
well  printed  and  which  is  conducted  in  an  efficient  and 
business-like  manner,  is  always  the  best  advertising  me- 


SELLKUS  OF  SPACK  29 

dium.  In  a  great  many  cases,  such  newspapers  with 
small  circulations  are  better  advertising  mediums  than 
newspapers  with  large  circulations  obtained  by  ques- 
tionable methods. 

The  newspaper  also  maintains  an  advertising  depart- 
ment headed  by  an  advertising  manager  with  a  number 
of  solicitors,  the  number  varying  with  the  size  of  the 
newspaper.  A  metropolitan  newspaper  will  have  fifteen 
or  twenty  men  whose  business  it  is  to  secure  advertising 
from  local  merchants.  These  men  cover  various  depart- 
ments, such  as  display  advertising  or  classified  adver- 
tising. In  addition  such  a  paper  will  maintain  special 
representatives  in  other  cities  to  secure  foreign  adver- 
tising. 

Classified  advertising  is  a  very  profitable  source  of 
revenue  to  a  newspaper,  and  an  abundance  of  want  ads 
is  a  sure  indication  of  the  value  of  a  newspaper  as  an  ad- 
vertising medium. 

Department  store  advertising  is  also  a  great  factor  in 
every  newspaper,  so  much  so  that  in  nearly  all  cities 
there  is  a  special  rate  for  it.  This  is  either  an  arbitrary 
rate,  or  it  is  a  rate  given  for  the  largest  quantity  of 
space  that  any  advertiser  could  use.  In  such  a  ca.se  it 
is  obtainable  by  any  advertiser  who  uses  that  amount  of 
space. 

Department  store  advertising  is  practically  never 
placed  by  an  advertising  agent.  Each  department  store 
maintains  an  advertising  department  of  its  own,  which 
in  the  case  of  the  largest  stores  numbers  anywhere  from 
ten  or  twelve  to  twenty  people  under  the  guidance  of  a 
capable  advertising  manager,  who  is  now  generally  called 
a  merchandising  manager,  and  who  not  only  prepares 
the  advertising  of  the  store,  but  maps  out  the  policy  of 
that  advertising.    Such  a  department  can  render  a  bet- 


30        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

ter  service  to  the  store  than  any  outside  advertising  or- 
ganization possibly  could. 

The  chief  work  of  the  newspaper  advertising  staff  is  to 
call  upon  all  the  merchants  in  town — advertisers  and 
non-advertisers — to  secure  as  much  advertising  for  the 
paper  as  possible.  This  goes  so  far  in  the  ease  of  many 
of  the  bigger  newspapers,  that  several  writers  of  ad- 
vertising are  retained,  who  prepare  advertisements  on 
suspicion,  for  the  solicitors  to  show  to  the  advertisers 
for  the  purpose  of  inducing  them  to  use  the  columns  of 
the  paper. 

Some  newspapers  have  restrictions  in  regard  to  the 
advertising  they  will  accept.  Some  of  them  will  not 
accept  black  cuts  and  insist  on  graining  or  stippling 
them  so  as  to  produce  a  gray  instead  of  a  black  effect. 
Others  charge  extra  for  the  insertion  of  any  cuts  or  for 
breaking  column  rules.  Others  insist  that  every  adver- 
tisement shall  be  deeper  than  it  is  broad.  There  are 
also  restrictions  in  regard  to  the  kinds  of  type  that  may 
be  used.  Some  newspapers  do  not  allow  paid  advertising 
to  be  set  in  any  kind  of  type  that  will  resemble  the  regu-  • 
lar  news  matter  of  the  paper.  Usually,  but  not  always, 
the  newspaper  which  has  the  most  independent  and  self- 
respecting  attitude  toward  its  advertising  is  the  best  ad- 
vertising medium.  The  ones  which  make  the  most  con- 
cessions are  the  ones  which  find  it  hardest  to  get  the  best 
advertising  patronage.^  The  tendency,  however,  in  news- 
paper publishing  is  constantly  toward  uniform  prac- 
tice. 

^"Newspaper  Advertising"  by  George  H.  E.  Hawkins,  just 
published,  is  a  comprehensive  book  upon  this  special  department. 
It  is  enhanced  in  its  usefulness  to  the  worker  by  the  numerous 
reproductions  of  advertising  used  in  successful  newspaper  cam- 
paigns. 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  81 

§8 

The  next  largest  division  of  advertising  mediums 
comes  under  the  heading  of  "Magazines."  The  word 
"magazine"  is  so  loose  a  term  that  we  can  easily  apply 
it  to  all  mediums  which  circulate  nationally,  as  opposed 
to  newspapei*s  which  circulate  locally. 

Strictly,  a  magazine  is  a  publication  issued  once  a  week 
or  once  a  month,  in  which  there  is  little  or  no  news  mat- 
ter, but  which  is  made  up  of  articles,  essays,  stories  and 
pictures  devised  for  the  instruction  and  entertainment  of 
its  readers. 

Taking  the  word  "nuigazine"  in  its  broad  sense,  we 
can  divide  all  magazines  into  the  following  very  rough 
classifications : 

Standard  magazines 

Women's  magazines 

Weeklies 

Children's  magazines 

Agricultural  papers 

Religious  papere 

Mail-order  papers 

and  various  class  papers. 

At  this  point  the  classification  verges  over  into  the 
trade  paper.  It  is  rather  hard  to  draw  a  line  between 
some  magazines  and  some  trade  papers.  Strictly,  a  trade 
paper  is  a  publication  reaching  a  particular  trade  or  in- 
dustry, understanding  "trade"  as  meaning  not  only  a 
skilled  craftsman,  but  also  a  retail  dealer.  That  is,  a 
grocer  is  a  tradesman  under  this  classification  just  as 
much  as  is  a  plumber.  "Industry"  is  to  be  understood 
as  meaning  a  given  manufacturing  line,  such  as  the  auto- 
mobile industry  or  the  piano  industry.    A  trade  paper 


32        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

verges  into  the  magazine  class  when  some  particular 
trade  is  of  such  popular  interest  that  its  trade  publica- 
tion is  read  not  only  by  the  technical  producer,  but  by 
the  non-technical  user.  There  are  a  number  of  automo- 
bile papers  which  reach  not  so  much  the  maker  or  seller 
of  automobiles  as  the  user,  and  there  are  architectural 
papers  intended  almost  as  much  for  the  man  who  is 
building  a  house  as  for  the  architect. 

Trade  papers  are  publications  issued  in  the  interests 
of  some  trade,  profession  or  industry.  They  are  almost 
altogether  of  a  technical  character,  though  many  of  them 
devote  considerable  space  to  the  news  of  the  trade  they 
represent.  The  more  important  trade  papers  are  author- 
itative in  their  respective  lines.  The  editors  are  men  of 
practical  training  and  experience  in  the  industry  repre- 
sented, and  their  writings  represent  the  best  thought  and 
experience. 

In  this  class  are  such  standard  papers  as  the  Dry 
Goods  Economist,  Iron  Age,  Engineering  Magazine, 
Street  Railway  Journal  and  many  others.  Such  publi- 
cations have, a  large  circulation  as  compared  with  the 
relatively  limited  number  of  people  to  whom  they  ap- 
peal. They  represent,  in  many  cases,  valuable  properties 
built  up  by  careful  and  intelligent  editorial  work.  The 
Dry  Goods  Economist,  for  instance,  has  experts  on  its 
staff  representing  all  the  main  divisions  of  the  dry  goods 
trade.  It  has  representatives  in  the  leading  fashion  and 
manufacturing  centers  of  the  world.  It  has  an  intelli- 
gent correspondent  in  Paris,  where  fashions  are  created, 
and  a  technical  writer  in  St.  Gall,  Switzerland,  where 
many  foreign  laces  and  embroideries  are  made  or  sold. 

A  trade  paper  is  frequently,  but  not  always,  published 
in  the  center  of  the  districts  of  the  trade  it  represents. 
For  instance,  a  glove  trade  paper  is  published  at  Glo- 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  38 

versville,  N.  Y.  Textile  trade  papers  are  found  among 
the  looms  and  mills  of  New  England.  Shoe  trade  papers 
flourish  in  and  around  Boston,  the  center  of  the  shoe 
trade.  Carpet  trade  papers  are  published  in  Philadel- 
phia. The  Dry  Goods  Economist  has  its  offices  located 
in  the  center  of  the  wholesale  dry  goods  district  of  New 
York.  In  this  way,  trade  papers  of  the  better  sort  reflect 
varying  trade  conditions  constantly  and  accurately. 
They  are  in  close  touch  with  the  men  who  are  most 
important  in  their  businesses. 

Trade  papers  or  class  papers  may  be  divided  roughly 
into  papers  devoted  to  trades  such,  for  instance,  as  the 
Baker's  Helper,  a  journal  of  the  baking  trade,  or  the 
Metal  Worker,  a  journal  for  tin-roofers ;  papers  devoted 
to  professions,  as  llie  Green  Bag  for  lawyers.  The  Den- 
tal Cosmos  for  dentists,  or  Architecture  and  Building 
for  architects;  papers  devoted  to  industries,  as  the 
Northwestern  Miller,  a  leading  organ  of  the  flour-milling 
industry,  or  Power,  a  journal  of  applied  steam  and 
other  power;  papers  for  various  retail  trades,  as  the 
American  Stationer,  or  the  Clothier  and  Furnisher, 
whose  names  are  self-explanatory;  papers  devoted  to 
societies,  secret  and  otherwise,  such  as  the  Masonic  Home 
Journal;  and  educational  papers,  such  as  the  Normal 
Instructor. 

Such  distinctions  must  be  borne  in  mind  by  adver- 
tisers who  are  trying  to  reach  any  given  class. 


§9 

Standard  magazines  are  monthly  magazines  cf  a  gen- 
eral character — the  magazines  of  literature  as  it  is  under- 
stood to-day,  although  covering  a  very  wide  range  of 


34.        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

actual  literary  merit.  For  some  time  "standard"  was 
applied  to  a  magazine  which  had  a  two-column  page  71/2 
by  10  inches.^  A  number  of  these  magazines,  however, 
have  recently  changed  the  size  of  their  pages  to  three  and 
even  four  columns,  while  retaining  the  general  character 
of  the  contents. 

The  word  "standard"  as  applied  to  magazines,  how- 
ever, is  better  understood  when  we  realize  that  there 
is  another  large  class  of  magazines  devoted  entirely  to 
the  work  and  amusement  of  women.  Such  magazines, 
which  are  usually  published  monthly,  range  all  the  way 
from  a  strictly  fashion  publication  to  a  magazine  that 
covers  every  department  of  a  woman's  life  and  work. 
These  magazines  also  have  departments  of  fiction,  verse, 
and  special  timely  articles  and  essays,  and  in  most  cases 
have  attained  a  very  large  circulation. 

Weeklies  are  really  magazines  published  every  week. 
They  have  little  else  in  common.    Some  of  them  have  a 

^  The  size  of  a  page  in  the  standard  size  magazine  is  5^>  by  8 
inches,  exclusive  of  the  heading.  Each  cohimn  is  approximately 
2%  inches  wide,  that  strictly  being  the  exact  width  allowed  when 
an  8-point  slug  or  rule  has  been  run  down  the  center  of  the  page 
to  separate  the  columns.  The  width  of  a  column  in  the  standard 
four-column  folio,  to  which  class  the  Youth's  Companion,  Ladies' 
Home  Journal  and  Saturday  Evening  Post  belong,  is  2Vi   inches. 

In  practice,  however,  special  sizes  of  plates  have  to  be  made 
for  the  women's  papers  and  the  weekly  papers,  although  it  is  the 
custom  of  large  advertisers  to  use  the  same  design  on  both,  adapt- 
ing it  to  the  different  sizes  of  space.  Often  when  space  of  vari- 
ous sizes  or  proportions  is  used,  it  requires  considerable  ingenuity 
to  adapt  the  same  design  to  each  amount  of  space.  It  is  best  to 
kerep  the  proportions  of  space  the  same,  and  as  nearly  the  same 
in  size  as  possible,  in  order  to  secure  the  best  results.  For  in- 
stance, a  design  which  occupies  a  page  in  a  regular  magazine  can 
be  used  as  one-fourth  of  a  page  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  or 
Collier's  and  other  publications  of  that  class  without  losing 
much  of  its  effectiveness. 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  85 

news  character;  that  is,  pictures  of  passing  events. 
Others  are  th>votod  entirely  to  general  matter,  stories  and 
articles,  while  still  others  are  digests  of  the  week's  news. 

Tlicre  are  not  many  publications  devoted  exclusively 
to  children — not  so  many  as  there  were  twenty  years 
ago.  The  large  amount  of  .space  given  to  children  in 
Sunday  newspapers,  women's  magazines  and  other  pub- 
lications has  practically  killed  the  exclusively  children's 
magazine.  Of  the  few  that  exist  only  two  are  really 
notable  as  advertising  mediums — St.  Nicholas,  which  has 
for  forty  years  been  the  best  publication  published  ex- 
clusively for  children,  and  the  Youth's  Companion,  more 
than  twice  as  old  and  probably  more  of  a  general  family 
paper  than  its  name  implies. 

The  increase  in  the  overhead  cost  of  publishing  a 
magazine  has  forced  many  publishers  to  adopt  the  group 
idea.  By  this  plan  several  magazines  are  put  out  by 
one  house.  Even  though  separate  editorial  staffs  are 
maintained,  the  combining  of  the  circulation  depart- 
ments in  one,  and  the  advertising  departments  likewise, 
is  helpful  to  the  profits  while  frequently  increasing  the 
efficiency. 

§  10 

One  of  the  problems  in  advertising  is  that  of  duplica- 
tion of  advertising  mediums.  Duplication  is  explained 
by  the  fact  that  one  reader  reads  .several  publications, 
so  that  an  advertisement  in  each  one  of  those  several 
publications  reaches  only  one  possible  buyer.  This  is 
true  somewhat  of  newspapers,  but  not  so  much  so  as  it  is 
of  magazines,  and  in  considering  magazine  advertising, 
it  is  a  very  large  factor  in  determining  the  selection  of 
mediums. 


36        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

The  large  duplication  in  magazine  circulation  seems 
to  be  due  to  two  things.  One  is  the  method  used  by 
magazine  publishers  to  get  circulation.  The  other  is  a 
tendency  of  a  family  to  take  more  than  one  maga- 
zine, and  in  addition  to  that  to  take  more  than 
one  magazine  of  the  same  kind ;  that  is,  two  wom^n  's 
magazines,  or  two  fiction  magazines,  or  two  literary 
magazines. 

The  methods  used  to  obtain  circulation  for  magazines 
make  possible  a  great  deal  of  duplication.  First,  the 
magazines  use  each  other  freely  to  advertise  their  own 
publications,  thus  reaching  the  readers  of  every  similar 
publication.  Then  the  clubbing  method — that  is,  the 
taking  of  several  subscriptions  for  one  name  at  a  cut 
price — brings  about  many  combinations  of  magazines. 
There  are  also  many  methods  of  getting  circulation  for 
which  there  is  not  space  to  give  a  detailed  description, 
but  all  of  which  are  based  upon  the  idea  of  associating 
several  magazines  for  one  address.  The  Curtis  Publish- 
ing Company,  however,  has  kept  itself  free  from  such 
entanglements  as  much  as  possible,  and  when  any  of  its 
magazines  figures  in  a  clubbing  list  it  figures  at  the 
full  subscription  price.  It  believes  that  the  best  policy 
is  to  secure  its  circulation  apart  from  other  magazines. 
Nevertheless  the  circulation  of  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal 
and  that  of  the  Woman's  Home  Companion  duplicate 
each  other  to  the  extent  of  fifty  per  cent. 

It  must  not  be  considered  that  this  is  necessarily  a  bad 
thing.  Advertising  itself  is  duplication  or  repetition. 
There  is  not  a  great  deal  of  difference  between  reaching 
the  same  family  twice  in  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal  or 
once  each  in  the  Ladies'  Home  Journal  and  Woman's 
Home  Companion.  Still  the  advertiser  with  a  limited 
appropriation,  who  wishes  to  reach  as  many  readers  as 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  87 

possible  at  the  lowest  net  cost  per  reader,  must  consider 
this  question  of  duplication  carefully. 

A  number  of  large  advertisers  recently  clubbed  to- 
gether and  raised  a  fund  for  a  house-to-house  canvass 
to  find  out,  among  other  things,  the  amount  and  charac- 
ter of  duplication  in  the  advertising  mediums  that  they 
used.  This  was  the  so-called  Eastman  investigation 
because  it  was  made  at  the  instance  of  Roy  0.  Eastman, 
Advertising  Manager  of  Kellogg 's  Toasted  Corn  Flakes. 
The  results  of  this  investigation  were  not  made  public. 
Also,  as  it  was  conducted  in  such  a  way,  in  such  a  ter- 
ritory, and  upon  such  addresses  that  it  gave  a  certain 
undue  weight  to  certain  duplications,  and  also  undue 
weight  to  certain  publications,  it  was  not  an  infallible 
guide.  Nevertheless  it  did  show  that  duplication  in 
magazine  circulation  is  far  more  prevalent  than  tlie  gen- 
eral advertiser  believed  and  even  than  many  publishers 
believed. 

This,  then,  is  a  thing  that  should  be  carefully  con- 
sidered and  watched  out  for  in  planning  a  national  ad- 
vertising campaign  in  magazines. 


§  11 

Only  by  stretching  the  terra  to  its  widest  extent  can 
the  word  '  *  magazine ' '  be  applied  to  agricultural  papers. 
These  are  strictly  class  or  trade  papers  looking  upon 
farming  as  a  trade.  They  are  publications  usually 
printed  upon  the  same  kind  of  paper  as  is  used  in  news- 
papers. They  are  published  weekly,  semi-monthly  and 
monthly.  They  are  devoted  almost  altogether  to  tech- 
nical questions  of  farming,  and  they  are  divided  roughly 
into  two  great  classes:   those  which,  circulate  nationally 


38         THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

and  those  w^ich  circulate  locally ;  ' '  locally ' '  in  this  case 
meaning  a  state  or  a  group  of  states  where  farming  con- 
ditions are  more  or  Ipss  identical.  There  are  a  few  farm 
publications  having  very  large  circulations  which  prac- 
tically cover  the  entire  United  States.  These  publica- 
tions take  up  farming  in  its  broader  aspects,  and  treat 
of  such  subjects  as  legislation  affecting  the  farmer, 
market  conditions,  and  the  general  business  side  of  farm- 
ing. In  so  large  a  country  as  the  United  States,  how- 
ever, there  are  many  local  conditions  of  crops  and  soils, 
which  require  more  specific  treatment,  or  at  least  which 
have  justified  the  publishing  of  a  great  many  farm  pa- 
pers in  the  East,  IMiddle  West,  Far  West  and  South,  in 
which  local  farming  questions  are  given  the  greater 
amount  of  space. 

To  these  papers  must  be  added  a  number  of  specialty 
farm  papers  devoted  to  stock  raising,  poultry  raising  and 
other  special  departments  of  farm  work,  which  have  a 
more  or  less  national  circulation. 


§  12 

The  so-called  religious  papers  are  not  so  abundant  or 
so  successful  as  they  were  in  the  earlier  days  of  the  pub- 
lishing business.  Whether  religion  is  no  longer  such  a 
vital  topic  with  the  American  public,  or  other  publica- 
tions have  been  able  to  give  better  and  more  timely 
consideration  to  religious  questions,  the  religious  news- 
paper is  not  the  power  it  once  was. 

To  continue  our  scheme  of  arbitrary  classification,  we 
will  make  three  divisions  of  religious  papers. 

The  first  of  these  are  the  papers  of  a  general  religious 
character   but   undenominational,    to    which    class   the 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  S9 

Christian  Herald  belongs,  and  of  which  also  both  the 
Outlook  and  the  Independent  were  once  members.  These 
two  last,  however,  have  become  general  or  standard 
magazines,  although  they  are  published  weekly  and 
might  be  classified  as  weeklies,  except  that  their  character 
is  so  unlike  the  other  weeklies. 

The  second  division  of  religious  papers  is  the  denomi- 
national class.  Every  one  of  the  numerous  denomina- 
tions in  this  country  has  at  least  one  organ,  and  many 
of  them  have  several. 

Then  there  is  an  even  larger  division  of  publications 
devoted  to  some  department  of  religious  work,  such  as 
the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  Y.  W.  C.  A.,  Epworth  League,  Christian 
Endeavor  and  the  Sunday-school. 

Taken  in  the  aggregate  these  publications  have  a  great 
circulation  and  probably  considerable  influence  upon  the 
people  who  take  them.  The  religious  newspaper  is  no 
longer  taken  seriously  by  advertisers  on  account  of  its 
character.  In  fact,  the  religious  papers  have  been  less 
amenable  to  the  better  conditions  of  advertising  and 
less  progressive  in  cleaning  their  columns  of  objection- 
able advertising  than  the  secular  publications. 


§  13 

There  is  another  large  division  of  publications  which 
might  be  considered  under  this  head,  but  which  are  not 
very  important  to  advertisers:  These  are  the  various 
official  organs  of  a  large  number  of  labor  unions,  lodges, 
clubs,  circles  and  other  organizations  in  which  the  heart 
of  the  average  American  delights.  Their  circulation  is 
due  to  the  fact  that  subscription  is  compulsory..  Adver- 
tising is  usually  solicited  on  the  ground  that  not  to  ad- 


iO        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

vertise  will  be  to  antagonize  the  trade  of  the  particular 
order  the  publication  represents,  and  only  in  a  few 
instances  are  such  publications  serious  advertising 
mediums. 

The  trade  press,  however,  is  a  much  more  important 
department  of  advertising  work.  While  there  are  many 
trade  publications  which  are  nothing  but  parasites  upon 
the  trades  they  assume  to  represent,  there  are  others  so 
ably  edited  and  having  so  much  weight  with  the  members 
of  the  trades  they  reach,  that  they  are  an  important  part 
of  the  advertising  campaign  of  any  nationally  sold  goods. 
Especially  in  dry  goods,  clothing,  hardware,  iron  and 
steel,  and  in  a  great  many  of  the  engineering,  electrical 
and  railway  fields  there  are  organs  whose  editorials  are 
quoted  authoritatively  by  the  daily  press,  and  whose 
advertising  undoubtedly  influences  influential  men. 
Some  of  these  trade  papers  are  so  well  conducted  that 
their  revenue  exceeds  that  of  many  nationally  circulated 
magazines. 


14 


There  is  a  class  of  papers  called  ''mail-order"  papers. 
These  papers  are  very  cheaply  printed,  their  reading 
matter  appeals  only  to  the  uncultivated  mind,  and  their 
advertising  is  of  interest  only  to  the  mail-order  adver- 
tiser. There  is  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  great 
mail-order  house  which  is  conducted  like  a  national  de- 
partment store  and  which,  while  it  deals  in  a  great 
quantity  of  low-priced  goods,  gives  more  than  a  fair 
return  for  the  money,  and  the  mail-order  advertiser  who 
is  preying  upon  a  credulous  state  of  mind  and  appeal- 
ing to  the  universal  desire  to  get  something  for  nothing. 

The  legitimate  mail-order  houses,  however,  are  largely 


Public  T>kdoer  Billboards. — Painted  signs  or  bulletins  along  the 
railroads  are  used  as  reminders  to  widen  the  publicity  of  an 
article  advertised  at  greater  length  in  otlier  kinds  of  mediums. 
The  colors  of  the  originals  made  these  signs  stronger  than  can 
be  shown  by  black  and  white. 


42        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

barred  from  the  high-class,  nationally  circulated  maga- 
zines because  of  the  antagonism  between  the  mail-order 
house  and  the  retail  dealer.  The  retail  dealer  feels  that 
the  mail-order  catalog  gets  into  his  community  and  gets 
a  great  deal  of  the  trade  that  would  otherwise  come 
to  him.  Therefore,  he  is  antagonistic  to  the  publications 
which  carry  such  advertising.  The  manufacturer  who 
sells  his  goods  through  the  retail  store  is  very  anxious 
to  have  the  goodwill  of  this  retailer  and  he  will  avoid 
using  publications  which  carry  mail-order  advertising,  so 
as  to  insure  that  goodwill.  Therefore,  very  few  of  the 
national  magazines  will  accept  real  mail-order  advertis- 
ing; that  is,  the  advertising  of  the  mail-order  house 
that  sells  nearly  every  conceivable  article  by  mail. 
There  is,  however,  considerable  mail-order  advertising 
in  most  magazines  confined  to  some  one  special  article, 
such  as  books,  which  are  very  largely  sold  in  this 
way. 

The  great  mail-order  house  of  Montgomery  Ward  & 
Company  has  been  using  a  new  kind  of  advertising  to 
lift  itself  out  of  the  class  in  which  it  is  sometimes  placed 
by  the  unthinking.  Its  advertising  is  barred  from  the 
best  magazines  because  of  the  jealousy  of  the  retail 
dealer.  Therefore,  it  has  been  using  newspapers  in  the 
Middle  West.  The  space  occupies  pages,  and  the  copy 
and  designs  are  of  the  highest  character.  The  artists  are 
men  of  national  reputation,  such  as  Franklin  Booth, 
James  Montgomery  Flagg  and  Charles  Dana  Gibson. 
The  copy  is  written  with  the  idea  of  giving  character 
and  dignity  to  the  house's  advertising.  So  remarkable 
are  these  advertisements  when  seen  from  the  conven- 
tional viewpoint  of  mail-order  advertising  that  one 
is  here  reproduced  as  a  step  in  the  history  of  adver- 
tising. 


Montgomery  Ward  &  Co.  Ad. — One  of  a  series  of  full-page  news- 
paper ads,  each  designed  hy  a  prominent  artist.  The  idea  was 
to  give  to  an  old  established  mail-order  house  the  class  that 
attaches  to  a  high-grade  department  store. 


44        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  15 

Advertising  in  street  cars  is  so  different  from  that  in 
the  mediums  just  described  that  it  must  be  considered 
from  an  entirely  different  point  of  view.  An  advertise- 
ment is  placed  in  a  magazine  or  newspaper  with  the  idea 
that  the  circulation  of  that  publication  will  carry  the 
advertisement  to  the  reader.  A  card  is  placed  in  a  street 
ear  with  the  idea  that  the  people  will  come  to  the  adver- 
tisement. A  very  large  percentage  of  the  population  of 
the  United  States  rides  in  street  cars  every  day.  Every 
street  car  carries  a  row  of  cards  above  the  seats  on  each 
side,  which  are  used  as  advertising  mediums  for  a  large 
number  of  successfully  advertised  goods.  These  cards 
are  uniformly  21  by  11  inches  in  size.  Only  a  short 
announcement  can  be  made,  as  they  must  be  read  from  a 
distance.  They  offer  the  opportunity  of  tising  color  and 
of  thus  making  a  poster  of  the  advertisement.  Street- 
car cards  are  usually  seen  daily  or  twice  a  day  by  the 
same  people,  and  usually  run  a  month  without  change. 

Street-car  advertising  is  displayed  not  only  in  the  cars 
that  run  upon  the  streets  of  cities  but  in  the  interurban 
cars  which  connect  these  cities;  also  in  the  cars  of  the 
subway  and  elevated  roads  of  our  large  cities.  There  is 
no  variation  in  the  character  of  the  advertising,  but 
th^re  is  some  difference  in  the  way  it  is  handled. 

The  advertising  of  the  largest  single  group  of  street 
cars  is  controlled  by  the  Street  Railways  Advertising 
Company,  representing  more  than  three-quarters  of  all 
street-cars  advertising  service  in  the  United  States,  Can- 
ada, Mexico,  Porto  Rico,  Cuba,  the  Philippine  Islands 
and  Brazil.  This  includes  everything  but  a  few  isolated 
cities  and  all  of  New  England.  New  England  is  con- 
trolled by  one  company;  New  York  is  divided  between 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  46 

two;  Philadelphia  forms  a  separate  company,  and  also 
St.  Louis  and  a  part  of  Chicago. 

This  service  is  charged  for  at  so  much  per  card  per 
month.  The  rates  vary  according  to  the  number  of  pas- 
sengers carried. 

It  is  generally  impossible  for  an  advertiser  to  u.se  more 
than  one  standard  sized  card  in  a  car.  In  the  case  of  a 
contract  for  a  term  of  years,  covering  every  car,  the 
largest  street-car  advertising  company  has  followed  the 
practice  of  giving  tliat  advertiser  exclusive  representa- 
tion as  far  as  his  goods  are  concerned. 

Contracts  with  local  street-car  companies  are  usually 
made  on  the  basis  that,  when  the  cars  are  not  occupied 
with  national  advertising,  the  company  can  sell  the  space 
to  local  advertisers.  You  will  notice  in  many  such  cities 
>3ards  representing  local  stores  running  alongside  those 
of  nationally  advertised  articles. 

The  present  relations  of  advertisers  and  advertising 
agents  with  street-car  advertising  concerns  are  not  en- 
tirely satisfactory.  The  S.  R.  A.,  as  it  is  called,  makes  a 
contract  with  a  selected  number  of  advertising  agents 
to  whom  it  pays  a  commission.  The  other  street-car  com- 
panies do  not  officially  recognize  agents,  although  some 
of  them  pay  a  commission.  The  S.  R.  A.  puts  in  its 
contract  a  clause  preventing  the  agent  whom  it  recog- 
nizes from  dealing  with  other  street-car  companies. 
This,  of  course,  is  illogical,  because  that  same  agent  can 
deal  on  an  equal  basis  with  all  newspapers  or  with  all 
magazines.  Street  cars,  being  a  recognized  advertising 
medium,  should  be  on  the  same  terms  with  all  advertising 
agents  as  are  other  mediums.  This  condition  is  an  anom- 
alous one,  and  the  forces  that  are  making  for  better 
advertising  conditions  will  bring  about  a  much  needed 
change. 


46        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Street-car  advertising  is  placed  for  a  full  run  or  a 
half  run;  the  full  run  meaning  every  car  in  the  town, 
and  half  run  every  other  car.  It  is  not  usually  accepted 
for  a  less  term  than  six  months,  and  the  usual  period  is 
a  year.  Most  contracts  carry  an  agreement  of  a  monthly 
change,  but  all  these  general  statements  are  subject  to 
exceptions  and  variations. 

Street-car  advertising  is  a  simple  and  direct  form  of 
advertising,  very  easily  handled  as  far  as  placing  is  con- 
cerned. It  is  checked  up  by  the  street-car  company, 
although  any  advertiser  has  the  privilege  of  sending 
a  man  to  any  tovi^n  to  make  an  experimental  check- 
up. 

The  checking  of  street-car  advertising,  however,  is  one 
of  the  things  that  is  being  considered  by  national  adver- 
tisers and  will  be  a  part  of  the  work  of  the  newly 
incorporated  auditing  bureau. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  an  interesting  way  of  secur- 
ing a  longer  story  than  the  average  street-car  card  will 
hold  is  to  print  a  number  of  cards,  each  one  telling  a 
different  advertising  story  about  the  same  article,  and 
distribute  these  cards  through  the  cars  of  a  given  town, 
so  that  in  the  course  of  a  month  of  steadily  riding  on 
street  cars  the  average  passenger  will  read  every  one  of 
the  ten  or  the  dozen  cards. 


§  16 

The  next  great  advertising  medium,  which  is  also  in  a 
class  by  itself,  is  what  is  generally  called  "billboard" 
advertising.  The  billboard,  however,  is  strictly  a  stand 
upon  which  a  paper  poster  is  pasted.  "Painted  bul- 
letin" or  "painted  sign"  is  the  expression  used  to  de* 


SELLERS  OP  SPACE  47 

Scribe  a  permanent  painted  sign,  and  while  the  process 
is  different,  the  advertising  value  is  practically  the  same, 
the  difference  being  that  the  lithographed  poster  is  pos- 
sibly a  more  elastic  form  of  expression  than  the  painted 
sign.  Here  again,  however,  there  should  be  quali- 
fication, as  the  modern  development  of  sign-painting 
is  producing  very  attractive  and  artistic  pennanent 
posters. 

There  are  quite  a  number  of  associations  owning 
stands,  as  they  are  called,  for  posters  and  painted  signs. 
These  are  usually  built  upon  leased  ground,  either  in  the 
open  country  or  along  railroads,  or  upon  buildings  or 
around  vacant  lots  in  towns.  They  are  substantially 
built  and  kept  up,  and  the  display  upon  these  stands  is 
carefully  protected. 

Posters  are  usually  measured  by  the  sheet.  The  size 
of  a  sheet  is  28  by  42  inches.  One-sheets,  however,  are 
largely  confined  to  more  intimate  displays,  as  the  posters 
upon  the  elevated  and  subway  stations  in'  New  York, 
Chicago,  Boston  and  other  large  cities.  They  are  also 
used  for  hanging  in  windows.  The  regular  stands  are 
four  sheets  high,  the  sheet  in  this  case  being  posted 
horizontally.  They  vary  in  length  according  to  whether 
the  poster  is  a  four-sheet,  an  eight-sheet,  a  twelve-sheet, 
a  sixteen-sheet  or  a  twenty-four-sheet. 

The  charge  is  so  much  a  sheet  for  posting,  and  so  much 
a  year  for  display.  About  twenty-five  per  cent,  extra 
paper  is  required  for  renewals,  as  it  is  part  of  the  eon- 
tract  that  the  local  billposters  shall  keep  the  paper  re- 
newed in  case  it  is  torn  down  or  obliterated  by  the 
weather. 

Painted  signs  are  charged  for  by  the  running  foot.  A 
contract  usually  calls  for  so  many  repaintings — either  a 
new  design  or  a  renewal  of  the  old  one. 


48        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  17 

Painted  signs  have  been  greatly  elaborated  in  some 
of  the  large  cities,  and  many  of  them  are  illuminated  at 
night  in  the  crowded  sections.  Much  ingenuity  has  been 
expended  upon  various  kinds  of  electric  and  movable 
signs.  There  is  no  particular  standardization  of  these, 
however.  Nearly  every  one  is  the  subject  of  a  special 
agreement. 

§  18 

These  four  grand  divisions  cover  practically  all  of  the 
•mediums  considered  by  an  advertiser.  There  are  a  num- 
ber of  sporadic  advertising  mediums  used,  however,  of 
more  or  less  value,  chief  of  which  are  probably  theater 
programs.  A  very  small  part  of  a  theater  program  is 
given  to  the  program  of  the  theater,  and  a  dozen  or 
so  additional  pages  are  filled  with  advertising.  This  has 
grown  so  profitable  that  various  organizations,  inde- 
pendent of  the  theater,  supply  the  theaters  with  pro- 
grams free  for  the  franchise  of  selling  this  advertising 
space.  Such  a  concern  usually  controls  the  programs  of 
a  number  of  theaters,  and  is  thus  able  to  offer  quite  a 
large  circulation.  The  advertising  value  of  these  me- 
diums, while  not  equal  to  that  of  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines, is  undoubtedly  great.  The  same  plan  is  adopted  for 
programs  of  other  entertainments,  such  as  baseball  and 
football  games,  and  various  games  and  sports  of  different 
societies. 

§  19 

Each  college  publishes  at  least  one  magazine  or  news- 
paper, and  the  larger  ones  have  several.     All  of  these 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  49 

carry  advertising.  The  advertising  is  usually  a  gift  that 
is  an  expression  of  goodwill  on  the  part  of  the  local 
merchants,  and  in  some  cases  of  national  advertisers 
who  happen  to  be  alumni  of  some  particular  college. 
The  dailies  and  weeklies  of  the  larger  colleges  and  uni- 
versities are  fairly  good  advertising  mediums  and  carry 
quite  a  large  amount  of  advertising  appealing  especially 
to  young  men,  such  as  cigarettes,  clothing,  collars,  sport- 
ing goods  and  the  like. 

No  definite  attempt  has  been  made  to  gather  the  col- 
lege papers  together  in  any  one  organization  with  a  cen- 
tral representative.  This  might  be  done  with  profit,  how- 
ever. The  alumni  publications  of  Harvard,  Yale  and 
Princeton  have  effected  such  an  organization  and  are  of- 
fering a  small  but  very  well  selected  circulation  to  ad- 
vertisers. 

"Advertising  novelties"  is  the  term  applied  to  a  large 
number  of  articles  of  alleged  beauty  or  utility,  which 
bear  an  advertisement  or  at  least  the  name  of  an  adver- 
tised article,  and  are  distributed  free.  This  business  has 
grown  so  great  that  several  large  manufacturing  con- 
cerns devote  their  entire  energies  to  producing  advertis- 
ing novelties.  Among  the  best  known  forms  of  such 
things  are  calendars,  blotters,  buttons,  pens,  pencils, 
knives,  pocketbooks  and  memorandum  books. 

The  actual  advertising  value  of  such  things  is  prob- 
lematic. They  are  largely  sent  as  an  expression  of 
goodwill.  Sometimes  an  ingenious  use  of  such  an  idea 
makes  a  very  effective  supplement  to  other  advertising. 

§  20 

Whether  what  is  collectively  known  as  "printed  mat- 
ter" should  be  included  as  an  advertising  medium  is  a 


50        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

matter  of  wording  rather  than  a  matter  of  fact.  A  great 
deal  of  advertising  is  done  successfully  by  specially 
printed  things.  These  range  all  the  way  from  an  elab- 
orate, expensive,  cloth-bound  catalog  down  to  a  simple 
folder  or  leaflet  inclosed  in  an  envelope.  Such  printed 
matter  is  probably  sent  more  largely  to  the  trade — that 
is,  to  dealers — than  it  is  to  the  public,  but  there  are 
very  few  people  who  do  not  receive  frequently  what  are 
known  as  circulars  advertising  something. 

The  judicious  use  of  printed  matter  in  advertising  is 
a  very  effective  supplement  to  other  forms  of  advertising, 
so  much  so  that  it  is  treated  at  length  elsewhere  in  this 
book. 

We  have  called  this  chapter  Sellers  of  Space,  because 
each  and  every  one  of  the  numerous  mediums  outlined 
in  the  brief  foregoing  description  has  a  representative 
actually  engaged  in  selling  the  space  in  his  particular 
medium  to  advertisers.  All  these  men  are  engaged  in  ad- 
vertising work,  but  not  many  of  them  are  actual  adver- 
tising men  or  have  the  sort  of  experience  that  would 
enable  them  to  successfully  carry  out  an  advertising 
campaign.  The  best  of  them  understand  advertising  suf- 
ficiently to  relate  their  particular  mediums  to  the  plans 
of  the  advertiser,  but  most  of  them  are  salesmen  selling 
a  given  commodity,  and  it  is  up  to  the  advertiser  or  to 
his  agent  to  decide  whether  that  particular  commodity 
has  any  value  for  the  article  that  is  to  be  exploited. 


21 


An  interesting  medium  which  has  grown  out  of  the 
rapid  development  of  the  moving  picture  craze  is  the 
exploitation  of  goods  either  by  moving  pictures  or  by 


SELLERS  OF  SPACE  61 

the  still  stereopticon.  Merchants  make  arrangements 
with  local  moving  picture  managers  to  sliow  their  ad- 
vertisements upon  the  screen  between  the  moving  picture 
plays.  National  advertisers  supply  slides  for  the  pur- 
pose. The  more  progressive  ones  have  prepared  moving 
picture  films  of  the  manufacture  or  use  of  their  goods. 
Some  of  these  are  very  elaborate. 

As  a  very  interesting  adaptation  of  this  idea  a  wom- 
an's magazine  of  wide  circulation  published  a  serial 
story,  entitled,  "What  Happened  to  Mary,"  showing,  in 
a  popular  way,  the  adventures  of  a  typical  American  girl, 
and  dramatizing  and  acting  that  story  in  the  moving 
picture  theaters  of  the  country  simultaneously  with  the 
appearance  of  the  story  in  the  magazine.  This  had  the 
double  effect  of  advertising  both  the  magazine  and  the 
moving  picture  shows,  and  is  undoubtedly  the  precursor 
of  a  large  run  of  similar  ideas.  Such  advertising  takes 
advantage  not  only  of  a  new  medium,  but  also  of  a  very 
widespread  and  popular  interest  in  that  medium. 


CHAPTER   III 
SELLEES    OF    ADVEETISING 

§1 

The  advertising  agent  is  the  chief  seller  of  advertis- 
ing. There  are  over  five  hundred  advertising  agencies 
in  the  United  States,  but  only  a  small  number  of  these 
are  universally  recognized  by  advertising  mediums,  and 
without  full  recognition,  the  advertising  agent's  means 
of  earning  an  income  from  his  work  are  meager. 

Agencies  vary  in  the  kind  and  quality  of  service  they 
render.  Many  still  remain  what  all  agents  once  were 
— mere  jobbers  in  space,  rendering  no  other  service  than 
that  of  taking  the  advertiser's  previously  prepared  ad- 
vertising and  placing  it  in  specified  mediums  and  charg- 
ing various  percentages  of  the  total  cost  for  the  service. 

Much  advertising  is  still  done  upon  which  no  service 
is  required;  such  as  announcements  the  publication  of 
which  is  required  by  law ;  the  annual  statements  of  banks 
and  insurance  companies;  conventional  financial  adver- 
tising; legal  notices,  and  other  hackneyed  and  stereo- 
typed forms  which  require  no  advertising  knowledge, 
but  upon  which  some  agent  usually  collects  a  commis- 
sion. 

The  ideal  advertising  agency,  however,  is  one  that 
is  prepared  to  render  to  the  advertiser  a  real  service  in 
selling  ^Qods.  Such  agencies  are  organized  upon  the 
same  general  plan  and  work  in  the  same  general  way, 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  63 

but  each  one,  through  the  qualifications  of  the  men  who 
make  up  the  staff,  develops  an  individuality  or  person- 
ality which  soon  bci^ins  to  stand  out  as  characteristic 
of  that  agency  *s  work. 

§2 

An  agency  presupposes  at  least  three  specific  depart- 
ments. The  first  of  these  gets  in  touch  with  the  pro- 
spective client — to  secure  the  advertiser's  account,  and 
then  to  secure  information  upon  which  to  base  the  ad- 
vertising. Secondly,  there  must  be  some  creative  and 
constructive  department  which  can  prepare  the  adver- 
tising story  in  such  form  that  it  will  appeal  to  the  public 
and  sell  the  goods.  Thirdly,  there  must  be  one  depart- 
ment or  man  communicating  with  the  various  mediums 
to  negotiate  with  them  for  space  and  secure  the  proper 
insertion,  of  the  advertising.  This  is  reducing  an  adver- 
tising agency  to  its  lowest  terms.  There  are  probably 
many  small  agencies  which  consist  of  no  more  than  these 
three  men  with- necessary  clerical  assistance.  An  effec- 
tive service  agency  would  split  these  up  into  at  least 
eight  dominant  departments. 

First,  the  department  of  getting  business,  which  may 
in  some  instances  find  expression  in  a  staff  of  solicitors 
who  call  upon  all  advertisers,  present  and  prospective,  to 
solicit  their  present  business  or  urge  them  to  commence 
advertising — of  course,  through  the  agency  the  solicitor 
represents.  This  department  may  be  organized  to  the 
extent  of  operating  branch  offices  in  various  cities. 
These  branch  offices  may  in  turn  be  manned  by  a  head 
with  several  assistants,  prepared  not  only  to  sell  the 
services  of  the  parent  company,  but  to  render  in  some 
cases  advertising  service  and  to  give  advice  to  the  client. 


Apveptising  Agency  Chart 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  55 

In  other  and  more  professional  agencies,  the  business- 
getting  dcpartnu'nt  will  consist  of  a  man  or  men  in  a 
receptive  mood,  who  are  prepared  to  explain  the  work 
and  terms  of  these  agencies  to  in<|uirers,  but  who  do  not 
otherwise  solicit  business  and  who  do  not  open  negotia- 
tions with  advertisers  except  upon  request.  Such  meth- 
ods place  the  advertising  agency  upon  a  high  profes- 
sional plane,  and  follow  the  custom  of  doctors,  lawyers, 
architects  and  other  professional  men. 

Next  to  the  busines.s-getting  department  is  the  inves- 
tigating department,  which  in  turn  may  consist  of  one 
man  or  several,  and  may  attain  the  dignity  o£  a  large 
organization. 

It  is  necessary  to  ascertain  at  the  start  whether  the 
proposed  goods  can  be  advertised  successfully,  and,  if  so, 
how.  It  is  necessary  to  know  the  present  attitude  of  both 
public  and  trade  toward  these  particular  goods  and 
toward  competing  goods;  whether  the  present  form  of 
goods  or  package  or  name  or  trade-mark  is  desirable ; 
what  distribution  the  advertiser  has,  and  whether  it  must 
be  increased  before  the  advertising  can  be  successful ; 
whether  the  manufacturing  facilities  are  such  as  to  pro- 
duce an  increased  output,  supposing  the  advertising 
should  bring  such  increase,  and  various  other  things 
which  the  advertising  agent  must  know  and  which  the 
manufacturer  may  not  be  able  to  tell  him.  When  this 
investigation  is  completed,  enough  information  has  been 
secured  on  which  to  base  an  advertising  plan.  This 
work  is  undertaken  by  the  plan  man  of  the  agency,  who 
may  or  may  not  be  the  investigator  who  has  secured 
the  necessary  information,  just  as  that  same  investigator 
may  or  may  not  be  the  solicitor  who  has  secured  the 
business. 

The  plan  man  determines  in  a  general  way  the  na' 


56        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

ture  of  the  appeal,  to  whom  it  is  to  be  directed,  and  in 
what  terms  it  is  to  be  couched.  This  decides  the  medi- 
ums— whether  newspapers,  magazines,  street  cars,  or 
billboards,  or  several  or  all  of  them.  It  also  decides  the 
size  of  the  space,  the  tone  of  the  copy,  whether  or  not 
illustrations  will  be  used,  and  the  other  general  details 
of  the  plan.  It  considers  the  trade  and  the  best  method 
of  bringing  about  cooperation  between  the  dealer  and  the 
advertising.  It  suggests  special  advertising  material  for 
the  dealer  to  use,  and  it  calls  upon  the  traveling  man  to 
act  as  an  exponent  of  advertising  intelligence  to  the 
dealer.  After  which  the  plan  is  turned  over  to  the  copy 
and  the  art  departments  of  the  agency.  ' 

The  copy  department  prepares  copy  ^  in  accordance 
with  the  plan ;  the  art  department  prepares  the  illustra- 
tions or  designs ;  and  the  copy  and  designs  are  assembled 
and  put  in  the  form  of  type  and  cuts  by  the  typograph- 
ical department,  the  proofs  from  which  are  the  first 
physical  presentation  of  the  proposed  advertising.  These 
proofs,  accompanied  by  the  proper  orders  made  out  by 
the  rate  man,  or,  as  sometimes  called,  the  forwarding 
department,  are  sent  to  the  publications  or  other  medi- 
ums. This  process,  of  course,  varies  in  detail,  according 
to  whether  the  mediums  are  newspapers,  street  cars  or 
billboards. 

When  the  advertising  appears  or  is  published  in  the 
mediums,  these  mediums  when  they  are  periodicals  are 
sent  to  the  agency,  and  are  gone  over  by  a  number  of 
checkers  who  note  the  date  of  the  appearance,  the  con- 

^ ' '  Copy, ' '  a  word  borrowed  from  the  editorial  rooms  of  the 
newspaper,  may  mean  either  the  written  matter  only  or  the  com- 
pleted advertisement.  It  is  most  used  in  its  former  sense.  It  is 
a  loose  term  hastily  adopted,  and  generally  understood  by  the 
context,  but  is  not  explicit  or  descriptive. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  57 

dition  of  the  advertisement — that  is,  whether  it  is 
printed  legibly  or  not — the  space  occupied.  The  adver- 
tising is  checked  for  the  purpose,  first,  of  vouching  for 
the  bills  for  the  space  sent  by  the  mediums,  and  second, 
of  preparing  bills  for  the  service  to  send  to  the  client. 
Street-ear  and  billboard  advertising  are  checked  differ- 
ently, if  at  all. 

This  brief  resume  gives  us  the  business-getter,  the 
trade  investigator,  the  plan  man,  the  copy  department, 
the  art  department,  the  typographical  department,  the 
rate  man  and  the  checking  department,  which  may  be 
taken  as  the  staff  of  the  average  agency. 


§3 

"While  this  is  the  theory  upon  which  an  agency  works, 
in  practice  it  is  nowhere  nearly  so  mechanical  as  it 
sounds.  An  advertising  plan  docs  not  march  steadily 
through  an  agency  from  workman  to  workman  like  a 
piano  through  the  different  departments  of  a  piano  fac- 
tory. Advertising  is  in  one  sense  an  art,  and  advertising 
men  work  like  artists.  There  is  an  element  of  creation 
about  the  work,  and  creation  cannot  be  done  along  such 
hard  and  fast  lines.  In  the  work  of  the  agency  there 
is  considerable  consultation  between  the  different  depart- 
ments or  the  men  representing  these  departments.  The 
final  advertising  plan  is  more  a  cooperative  result  than 
it  is  the  work  of  any  one  man.  Each  man  on  the  staff 
maintains  close  relations  with  the  plan  and  its  execution. 
This  relation  does  not  cease  as  long  as  the  advertising 
continues.  It  is  the  perfection  of  mental  team  work 
just  as  the  baseball  nine  is  the  perfection  of  physical 
team  work. 


58        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Naturally  the  success  of  what  might  be  called  a  com- 
posite man  depends  upon  the  temperament  of  its  units. 
Temperament  decides  whether  an  advertising  agency 
shall  be  a  closely  knit,  efficient  creator  of  selling  forces, 
or  a  loose  collection  of  otherwise  able  men  who  are  unable 
to  use  each  other's  abilities  intelligently.  It  is  safe  to 
say  here,  however,  that  no  agency  run  upon  the  military 
plan  of  implicit  obedience  to  some  one  autocratic  author- 
ity has  ever  attained  high  rank  as  a  service  agency. 


§  4 

In  order  to  understand  clearly  the  functions  of  an 
agency,  it  is  better  to  consider  it  as  divided  into  at  least 
these  eight  departments,  and  that  in  many  cases  these  de- 
partments are  split  up.  Take,  for  instance,  the  rate  man. 
He  is  an  important  part  of  a  good  agency.  He  is  the 
point  of  contact  between  the  agency  and  all  mediums 
used  for  advertising.  Nominally  he  is  supposed  to  be  in 
possession  of  the  facts  about  these  mediums,  be  instantly 
prepared  to  make  an  estimate  of  the  cost  of  advertising 
in  any  given  list  or  group,  to  furnish  information  about 
the  nature  of  the  publication  or  the  character  of  its 
circulation,  to  figure  discounts,  extract  commissions,  coax 
special  positions  and  shop  for  bargains. 

In  actual  practice  the  successful  rate  man  is  no  such 
calculating  machine.  He  is  a  diplomat  who  stands  be- 
tween the  advertiser  and  the  horde  of  mediums  which 
are  clamoring  for  his  business.  He  should  possess 
enough  tact  to  retain  friendly  relations  with  all  the  rep- 
resentatives of  all  the  mediums,  while  at  the  same  time 
keeping  to  the  list  which  has  been  previously  agreed 
upon  and  which  can  include  but  a  small  fraction  of  the 


SELLERS  OF  ADVEUTISING  59 

inediuins  wliich  art'  trying  to  prove  that  thoy  doKorvi' 
the  business.  In  the  seK'etion  of  those  mediums  liis  real 
ability  will  be  revealed.  It  is  not  so  much  anujssing  in- 
formation as  reasoning  on  that  information,  that  is 
retjuired.  He  knows  that  every  dollar  of  the  advertiser's 
appropriation  must  count.  He  knows  that  when  so  few 
mediums  can  be  used,  they  must  be  chosen  shrewdly.  He 
becomes  a  judge  of  medium  values  and  develops  a  sort 
of  sixth  sense  of  circulation,  similar  to  the  way  tl>c 
miller's  thumb  is  educated  to  determine  the  value  of 
flour  by  the  sense  of  touch. 

So  the  more  or  less  clerical  work  connected  with  this 
department — that  is,  the  making-up  of  lists  and  estimat- 
ing the  cost  of  the  same ;  as  well  as  taking  care  of  the 
files;  securing,  tabulating  and  cross-indexing  the  infor- 
mation— is  all  done  by  an  assistant  or  assistants,  or  per- 
haps by  another  department. 

In  the  same  way,  the  mechanical  labor  of  forwarding 
the  prepared  advertising  to  the  mediums  is  not  actually 
done  by  the  rate  man,  although  nominally  coming  under 
his  charge.  It  is  taken  care  of  by  the  forwarding  de- 
partment, which  may  consist  of  a  number  of  clerks,  and 
which  in  turn  uses  various  outside  organizations  which 
have  so  systematized  the  di.stributing  of  the  actual  adver- 
tising mats,  plates,  or  street-car  cards  to  the  mediums, 
that  they  can  do  it  better  and  cheaper  than  the  agency. 

By  process  of  evolution  the  rate  man  has  become 
much  more  than  the  rate  man.  It  does  not  matter 
whether  he  can  recall  the  line  rate  of  a  newspaper,  if 
he  knows  exactly  how  that  newspaper  ranks  among  its 
fellows  in  the  .same  town.  Further,  as  one  of  the  points 
of  contact  with  the  outside  world,  he  is  responsible  for 
much  of  the  professional  reputation  of  the  agency  with 
which  he  is  connected. 


60        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  5 

Perhaps  the  most  important  man  in  connection  with 
any  agency  is  what  has  been  called  the  plan  man.  The 
plan  is  after  all  the  most  important  thing  about  an  ad- 
vertising campaign.  The  plan  man  is  usually  one  of 
the  principals  of  the  agency;  possibly  the  man  whose 
name  the  agency  bears.  He  has  reached  that  position 
because  of  his  advertising  knowledge  and  experience 
which  enable  him,  after  hearing  all  the  facts  of  the  case, 
to  decide  upon  a  definite  course  to  pursue,  just  as  a 
competent  general,  after  his  aides  have  brought  him 
information  about  the  position  of  the  enemy  and  the 
lay  of  the  ground,  can  decide  on  a  plan  for  a  military 
campaign  which  will  bring  results. 

{  Planning  an  advertising  campaign  is  work  which  for- 
ever possesses  a  fresh  interest,  because  no  two  advertis- 
ing campaigns  are  alike;  no  two  advertising  problems 
are  the  same;  no  two  products,  even  though  intended 
for  the  same  purpose,  present  quite  the  same  features. 

In  nearly  all  successful  advertising  there  is  a  certain 
keynote  idea.  To  teach  the  public  this  keynote  is  the 
main  purpose  of  the  advertising.  To  find  out  what  that 
keynote  is,  is  the  chief  object  of  the  plan  man.  A  study 
of  advertising  will  not  always  reveal  this.  It  is  not 
always  obvious.  Sometimes  the  desired  result  is  pro- 
duced unconsciously.  Sometimes  the  public  gives  the 
plan  man  his  cue.  Occasionally  all  the  work  of  the 
investigating  department  contains  not  a  single  idea, 
while  the  intuition  of  the  plan  man  supplies  the  idea 
wanted. 

Among  a  number  of  successful  keynotes  might  be 
mentioned  that  of  the  ''Hammer  the  hammer"  to  prove 
the  absolute  safety  of  a  certain  revolver;  specifications 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  61 

for  roofing  material  which  must  include  &h  one  of  the 
ingredients  the  article  made  by  the  advertiser;  or  empha- 
sizing the  luxurious  artistic  side  of  an  automobile,  to 
create  a  certain  class  distinction. 

The  plan  man  first  secures  this  leading  line  for  the 
article  he  is  studying,  and  around  it  he  will  build  his 
campaign.  lie  may  go  back  to  his  investigations  again 
and  again.  Trade  investigations  are  really  a  part  of 
the  daily  work  of  a  good  agency,  and  are  resorted  to 
from  time  to  time  during  the  progress  of  the  advertising 
to  check  up  results,  but  an  investigation  made  at  the 
start  is  to  determine  some  factor  which  will  have  a 
bearing  upon  the  plan  as  it  is  prepared. 


§  6 

Very  few  manufacturers  are  ready  to  begin  advertis- 
ing immediately.  Even  if  they  have  the  distribution  of 
their  goods,  the  goods  may  not  be  put  up  in  a  form  to 
permit  of  successful  advertising.  They  may  lack  dis- 
tinctiveness of  package,  or  an  engaging  name,  or  some 
change  in  form  that  will  make  them  more  readily  salable 
may  be  necessary.  There  are  many  considerations  which 
conspire  to  make  it  desirable  to  wait  before  starting  ad- 
vertising. But  the  chief  of  these  is  the  distribution  of 
goods. 

Distribution  is  a  very  elastic  term.  In  some  lines 
fifty  dealers  are  considered  good  distribution ;  in  others 
a  hundred  thousand  dealers  only  fair.  The  fifty  dealers 
might  be  selling  a  high-priced  automobile ;  the  hundred 
thousand,  a  laundry  soap  or  a  smoking  tobacco.  There 
are  some  things  which  we  expect  to  buy  at  every  store. 
There  are  others  for  which  we  are  willing  to  hunt  up  a 


62        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

special  dealer,  or  even  go  to  another  city  if  necessary. 

Distribution  for  the  purposes  of  advertising  means 
the  widest  possible  distribution  of  that  particular  prod- 
uct. Advertising  in  national  mediums  creates  all  over 
the  United  States  the  desire  to  purchase.  If  the  article 
is  one  of  easy  purchase,  for  which  a  substitute  can  be 
bought  anywhere,  much  of  the  advertising  loses  its  effect 
when  the  advertised  article  is  not  readily  obtainable. 
This  is  one  of  the  great  causes  of  waste  in  advertising. 
It  is  up  to  the  plan  man,  with  the  help  of  intelligent 
investigation,  to  determine  whether  the  present  distribu- 
tion justifies  national  advertising,  and  if  not,  to  decide 
how  to  secure  greater  distribution. 

Sometimes  it  is  found  that  an  article  is  well  distrib- 
uted in  some  localities,  and  not  in  others.  In  this  case 
some  form  of  local  advertising,  such  as  street  cars,  is 
applied  to  increase  the  sales  in  those  localities.  Other 
methods  of  cultivating  distribution  are  employed  else- 
where, until  a  national  distribution  justifies  national 
advertising. 

§  7 

The  physical  appearance  of  an  advertising  plan,  after 
it  is  complete,  varies  greatly.  It  may  consist  simply  of 
a  typewritten  outline,  or  story,  describing  in  words  the 
proposed  policy,  the  tone  of  the  copy,  the  list  of  medi- 
ums, the  spaces,  the  methods  of  reaching  the  trade,  or 
trades  if  there  are  several,  and  going  into  a  detail  de- 
pending on  the  sophistication  of  the  advertiser  or  the 
imagination  of  the  plan  man.  The  best  form  is  an  illus- 
trated plan  ^  giving  roughly  the  various  forms  of  ad- 

'  Beginning  on  page  219  is  given  a  complete  preliminary  plan 
of  this  sort. 


Cluett  Chart. — A  very  comprehensive  advertisinjj  and  sales  plan 
made  for  the  traveling  salesmen  of  a  manufacturer. 


64.        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

vertising — that  is,  a  rough  draft  or  suggestion  of  a 
newspaper  advertisement,  magazine  advertisement, 
street-car  card  or  poster,  with  cover  designs  and  dum- 
mies^ of  booklets,  with  samples  of  the  publications  to  be 
used,  showing  the  kind  of  printing  and  illustration  per- 
missible, with  some  specific  information  about  these  pub- 
lications, and  samples  of  printed  things  to  send  to  the 
trade.  The  exhibit,  so  prepared,  is  a  comprehensive 
bird's-eye  view  of  the  whole  campaign.  The  amount  of 
preliminary  work  done  upon  a  plan,  for  use  outside  of 
the  office  of  the  agency,  depends  a  good  deal  on  the 
advertiser's  knowledge  and  his  relation  with  the  agency. 
Such  things  are  temperamental.  Some  men  buying  ad- 
vertising are  quick  to  see  the  possibilities  of  even  a  rough 
sketch.  Others  require  the  completed  advertisement  be- 
fore they  can  decide.  The  advertiser's  approval  of  the 
agency's  work  is  far  more  necessary  than  it  should  be. 
Not  many  advertisers  will  leave  to  the  agent  the  real 
authority  in  preparing  and  placing  an  advertising  cam- 
paign, largely  because  all  manufacturers  feel  that  as 
they  know  their  goods  better  than  anyone  else,  they 
know  best  how  they  should  be  advertised.  Neither  of 
these  contentions  is  true.  Very  few  advertisers  know 
their  goods  as  well  as  other  people  do  because  they  are 
constantly  seeing  them  from  the  factory  side  and  not 
from  the  public  side.    A  good  advertising  man  is  a  much 

*  A  "  dummy "  is  a  booklet,  catalog  or  folder  made  up  roughly 
and  approximately  to  resemble  the  finished  printed  thing.  It  will 
show  the  kinds  of  stock,  the  colors  of  ink,  the  sizes,  number  of 
pages  and  other  facts.  If  the  booklet  is  to  be  mailed  in  an 
envelope,  the  envelope  is  part  of  the  dummy.  Eough  sketches  of 
the  illustrations  and  where  they  are  to  appear  are  shown,  and  also 
an  indication  of  the  kind  and  style  of  type  and  how  the  booklet 
is  to  be  printed.  From  such  a  dummy  a  printer  can  make  an 
estimate  of  the  cost  of  producing  any  part  of  the  finished  booklet. 


WOMEN  oMo 

CAESARS 

The  great  Italian  historian,  Ferrero, 
who  has  made  ancient  Home  Hve  again 
in  his  books,  begins  in  this  May  Century 
a  wonderfully  illuminating  series  of  six 
articles  on  Roman  women.  Did  yciu 
know  that  they  enjoyed  the  greatest 
social  and  legal  liberty  of  all  women  of 
the  ancient  world  ?  They  could  even 
retain  their  own  property  on  marriage 
if  they  wished  to  do  so,  and  they  had  a 
conventus  matronarum  —  which  was 
1  ..'itin  for  "woman's  club!" 

"Women  and  Marriage  in  Ancient 
Home"  is  the  title  'of  this  opening 
article  in  the  May  number. 

"THE  CI.ANIXIN  I.ETIF.HS,"  «>mcthin(j  more  than  an  unuMially  Kood  novelette 
bv  liai'oness  von  Ilutlen  (author  of /"am),  and  "The  A  U  C  of  the  Tariff  Question" 
bv  Andrew  Carnegie,  arc  among  other  goo<l  feature*  of  a  wonderfully  good  May  number. 

CENTURY 
MAGAZINE 


f  Tb*  Ontury  Co..  L'nion  Sqii 


i^ 


Century  Magazine  Ad. — This  advertisement  shows  an  attempt  to 
portray  within  an  advertisement  the  character  and  quality  of 
the  magazine  it  presents. 


66        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

better  judge  of  the  best  way  to  advertise  any  given 
article  than  the  man  who  made  it,  other  things  being 
equal.  Of  course,  some  manufacturers  are  born  adver- 
tisers, and  some  have  achieved  greatness  in  it,  but  most 
of  them  have  had  success  thrust  upon  them  by  some 
competent,  experienced  advertising  man,  who  may  be 
the  advertising  manager,  but  who  is  far  more  likely  to 
be  a  man  in  an  advertising  agency  who  has  both  nat- 
ural bent  and  much  experience  to  guide  him. 


§8 

While. many  agencies  maintain  copy  departments,  in 
others,  the  copy  department  and  the  plan  department 
are  the  same.  Someone,  however,  with  a  gift  for  ex- 
pressing in  the  words  of  the  English  language  every  note 
upon  the  gamut  of  desire,  must  produce  the  copy. 

Advertisements  are  usually  written  in  groups — a 
series  for  an  entire  campaign,  according  to  the  duration 
of  the  campaign  and  the  number  of  insertions.  The 
copy,  when  written  by  a  competent  advertising  man,  is 
written,  bearing  in  mind  the  purpose  of  the  copy;  the 
keynote  that  is  to  be  sounded  throughout;  the  display 
either  of  the  name  of  the  article  or  some  pertinent  fact 
about  it,  or  both ;  the  size  of  type  for  the  space  available ; 
and  finally  the  space  to  be  occupied  by  the  illustration 
and  its  relation  to  the  rest  of  the  advertisement. 

This  brings  us  to  what  is  known  in  most  agencies  as  a 
"layout"  man — one  who  can  take  a  given  square  of 
white  space  in  a  magazine,  or  newspaper,  and  lay  it  out 
with  proposed  wording,  illustration,  caption,  headline, 
display  of  the  name  of  the  article,  trade-mark,  signature 
and  all  the  other  component  parts  of  an  advertisement, 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  67 

so  as  to  produce  a  distinctive  and  individual  effect — 
an  effect  in  keeping  with  the  article  advertised  and  with 
the  kind  of  people  who  are  supposed  to  buy  it.  This 
effect  is  sometimes  called  "atmosphere." 

It  is  possible  by  the  judicious  use  of  type  and  picture 
to  convey  the  atmosphere  of  an  artistic  and  high-priced 
piano,  or  the  atmosphere  of  a  serviceable  and  practical 
bread  mixer.  While  this,  like  everything  else  in  adver- 
tising, can  be  carried  too  far  until  it  becomes  finicky  and 
hair-splitting,  it  is  nevertheless  a  point  to  be  borne  in 
mind,  and  it  is  attracting  increasing  attention  from  ad- 
vertising men. 

This  layout  man,  who  may  or  may  not  be  preceded  by 
the  copy-writer,  is  of  great  help  in  keeping  the  different 
parts  of  an  advertisement  in  proportion.  The  best  copy- 
writers and  broadly  all  advertising  men  have  some  in- 
stinct for  laying  out  an  advertisement.  Usually  the  plan 
men  are  graduates  from  the  lesser  positions  in  agencies 
and  have  acquired,  as  they  came  up  through  the  dif- 
ferent stages,  a  certain  knowledge  of  all  the  operations 
in  the  preparation  of  advertising  matter.  They  instinc- 
tively write  an  advertisement  just  as  they  prepare  an 
advertising  campaign — with  an  intelligent  knowledge  of 
all  the  things  that  must  be  done  to  it  before  it  can  be 
placed  in  the  mediums  where  the  public  may  look  at  it. 


§9 

Possibly  when  the  original  advertising  plan  has  been 
prepared,  and  it  has  been  decided  that  it  should  be  an 
illustrated  plan,  the  layout  man  is  called  in  to  help  in 
shaping  up  the  physical  appearance  of  the  advertising,  so 
the  copy-writer  will  have  before  him  a  sort  of  diagram 


68        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

of  an  advertisement  in  which  he  is  to  fill  in  the  wording. 
This  same  layout  goes  to  the  art  department  to  give  the 
art  manager  a  definite  idea  of  the  amount  of  space  to 
be  left  for  the  picture  and  something  of  the  style  of 
picture  to  be  used. 

The  art  manager  knows  from  experience  the  kind  of 
printing  that  each  publication  will  permit,  and,  there- 
fore, the  kind  of  illustration  which  can  be  used.  In 
newspapers  and  other  publications  printed  upon  coarse, 
absorbent  paper  he  uses  line  drawings,  while  on  the 
coated  paper  of  magazines,  wash  drawings  and  other 
more  delicate  graphic  processes  reproduced  by  half- 
tone are  possible. 

The  art  manager  has  at  his  disposal  an  art  depart- 
ment which  may  consist  of  resident  artists  working  in 
the  studio  of  the  agency,  or  more  likely  of  artists  of  vari- 
ous special  acquirements  who  are  called  in  and  given  a 
definite    commission   for   a    particular   piece    of   work. 
These  artists  may  be  the  various  illustrators  and  de- 
signers working  in  their  own  studios,  or  they  may  be* 
associations  of  commercial  artists  who  work  not  only 
for   agencies,   but  also  for  publishers  and  advertisers! 
direct,  and  who  by  their  training  are  able  to  deliver 
almost  any  kind  of  commercial  work.    They  do  not,  how- 
ever, usually  attain  the  distinction  and  individuality  of  ^ 
the  independent  artists,  and  these  men  are  best  only  at . 
the  kind  of  work  for  which  they  are  noted,  and  are  • 
usually  selected  for  the  purpose  of  doing  that  particular 
kind  of  work. 

The  back  covers  of  some  publications,  as  well  as  pos- 
ters and  street-car  cards,  offer  an  opportunity  for  the 
use  of  color.  Llany  commercial  artists  and  some  others 
are  producing  much  good  work  along  the  lines  of  the 
French  and  German  poster  work  which  is  quite  different 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  69 

from  ordinary  illustration  and  which  is  more  for  the 
purpose  of  attrarfing  attention  than  it  is  for  depicting 
a  process  or  an  advertised  article. 


§  10 

The  typography  of  the  advertisements  which  have 
gone  through  the  various  steps  previously  described  is 
by  no  means  unimportant.  It  has  much  to  do  with  the 
final  appearance  of  the  ad,  and,  therefore,  much  to  do 
with  the  impression  the  advertisement  makes  upon  the 
beholder.  Most  agencies  have  at  least  one  man,  and  some 
have  several,  who  have  the  supervision  of  the  type  dress 
of  the  advertising,  not  only  as  it  appears  in  publica- 
tions, or  in  street-car  cards,  but  also  as  it  goes  out  in 
the  form  of  printed  things.  These  men  are  not  usually 
printers,  although  they  sometimes  are,  but  they  are 
always  men  with  a  knowledge  of  tjpe  and  its  relation 
and  what  it  can  express,  with  good  ideas  of  display, 
balance,  proportion  and  other  things  which  have  to  do 
with  making  a  good  impression. 

The  tj'pographical  department  bears  the  same  relation 
to  the  production  of  advertising  that  the  designer  in  a 
piano  factory  has  to  do  with  the  building  of  a  piano. 
The  designer  of  an  artistic  case  for  a  piano  does  not 
produce  the  musical  tone,  but  he  does  enhance  the 
piano's  desirability.  Good  advertising  is  something  more 
than  mere  typography,  but  good  typography  makes  good 
advertising  more  effective. 

Both  the  art  and  the  typographical  departments  of 
an  agency  are  governed  by  the  rules  in  force  in  all  ap- 
plied design.  The  craftsman  who  designs  a  piece  of  fur- 
niture, or  a  piece  of  pottery,  or  a  fabric,  observes  certain 


TAKEN  FROM  LIFE 

E.  S.  Martin  says^ 

"One  would  think  that  Boston 
would  produce  a  morning  paper 
like  the  Springfield  Republican, 
intelligent,  orderly,  handsome;  a 
paper  firmly  established  with  tradi- 
tions, independence,  influence  and 
a  record;  a  fountain  of  culture 
and  a  means  of  public  education. 
There  is  no  such  morning  paper 
in  Boston." 

No,  but  there  is  in  Philadelphia 
— the  Public  Ledger. 


"I  have  been  a  reader  of  the 
Public  Ledger  sixty  years,  and 
during  all  that  time  it  was  never 
so  full  of  interest  as  it  is  today." 

The  whole  story  of  the  Public 
Ledger  is  summed  up  in  this  quo- 
tation from  a  letter. 


A  DIFFERENCE 

A  conceited  Englishman  once 
boasted  that  he  weighed  within 
three  pounds  of  as  much  as 
Gladstone. 

"Yes,"  replied  a  listener,  "but 
that  last  three  pounds  is  brains." 

There  is  more  difference  be- 
tween the  Public  Ledger  and  other 
morning  newspapers  than  is  rep- 
resented by  one  cent 


IN  LONDON 

The  iron  chairs  along  the  edge  of 
Rotten  Row  in  Hyde  Park  rent  at  a 
penny  each.  Though  they  cost  so 
little,  they  are  very  seldom  occupied 
by  the  masses.  The  show  is  not 
the  kind  that  attracts  the  masses, 
even  at  that  price. 

The  circulation  of  the  Public 
Ledger  is  determined,  not  by  the 
number  of  people  who  can  afford 
two  cents,  but  by  the  number  of 
people  who  can  appreciate  the 
Public  Ledger. 

Anyone  who  can  appreciate  the 
Public  Ledger  can  aflx>rd  it. 


A  FAVORITE  SON 

Seven  cities  warred  for  Homer 
— after  Homer  had  made  good. 

Any  city  would  be  proud  to  have 
a  Public  Ledger.  Its  name  is 
known  to  hundreds  of  thousands 
who  do  not  read  it  daily,  because 
they  do  not  live  in  Philadelphia, 
but  who  would  like  to  that  they 
might  read  it. 


These  advertisements  are  writ- 
ten and  put  here  to  make  you  pay 
one  cent  more  to  find  out  why  so 
many  Philadelphians  pay  twice  as 
much  for  their  morning  papers  as 
you  do. 


Public  Ledger  Newspaper  Ads. — These  advertisements  also  show 
the  effectiveness  of  the  use  of  type  alone  in  advertising.  Their 
distinctive  features  are  the  absence  of  display  and  the  margin 
of  white  around  them.  This  style  is  very  conspicuous  in  all 
newspapers  and  in  connection  with  all  kinds  of  make-up. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  71 

laws  in  proportion,  in  spacing,  in  balance  and  in  decora- 
tion, which  are  just  as  forceful  and  just  as  effective  when 
applied  to  the  appearance  of  advertising  as  they  are 
when  applied  to  anything  else  intended  to  appeal  to  the 
public. 

Some  agencies  maintain  printing  offices  of  their  own, 
but  most  of  them  deal  with  outside  printers  who,  work- 
ing under  instructions,  put  tlie  advertising  into  type 
form.  In  some  cases,  the  copy  with  layout  and  instruc- 
tions is  sent  to  the  medium  which  is  to  insert  it,  and 
the  printing  department  of  that  publication  will  put  it 
in  type  and  render  proof.  This  is  not  a  very  satisfactory 
thyig  to  do.  It  is  not  followed  much  by  the  best  agencies. 
Very  few  magazines  or  newspapers  have  typographical 
departments  that  have  both  the  skill  and  the  time  to  do 
justice  to  the  best  points  of  an  advertisement,  and  even 
if  they  had,  the  advertisement  would  have  a  different 
appearance  in  each  medium.  It  is  a  part  of  the  cumu- 
lative effect  of  advertising  that  the  same  advertisement 
should  always  make  its  appearance  in  the  same  typo- 
graphical dress. 

Sometimes  in  emergencies,  and  in  newspaper  work 
especially,  one  newspaper  will  set  up  an  advertisement 
and  make  a  number  of  matrices,^  one  of  which  is  sent 

^  A  matrix  is  a  sheet  of  pulpy  paper,  like  blotting  paper,  which 
is  softened,  beaten  down  upon  the  page  of  type  and  then  baked. 
Removing  it,  one  finds  an  exact  model  of  the  face  of  the  type. 
Type  metal  then  poured  into  it  produces  a  stereotype  of  the  ad- 
vertisement, which  stereotype  can  be  used  to  print  from  exactly 
as  type. 

One  of  these  matrices  is  sent  to  each  newspaper  office,  and  each 
newspaper  casts  its  own  stereotype  from  the  matrix.  This  can 
only  be  done  to  advantage  when  the  advertisement  occupies  an 
entire  page,  though  sometimes  a  smaller  advertisement  is  made 
in  this  way.    When  this  is  done/  the  stereotype  must   be  made 


MUSIC  has  always  been  enter- 
tainment for  man  and  beast. 
Orpheus  with  his  lyre  could 
subdue  lions.  But  there  has  never  been 
a  time  when  it  was  so  easy  for  everyone 
to  have  music  as  it  is  right  now  with 
the  Edison  Phonograph. 


EVEN  John  Philip  Sousa,  who  has 
no  Jc  for  phonography,  ha,  b«n 
forced  to  recognize  the   Ed.son 
Phonograph  as  a  formidable  competitor 
The  tw^step  king  says  that  people  wU 
„  loneer  eo  to  concerts  if  they  can  have 

phonograph. 


,I(h  eiubllilKiJ  uant  noxid  to 


MAN  does  not  live  by  bread  alone. 
Even  a  busy  man  gets  bored 
sometimes.  What  we  all  want 
i.  some  congenial  method  of  telaxat.on  - 
something  that  will  amuse  us.  The  less 
cZn  required  to  secure  the  amusement, 
hrbeter.  For  such  a  purpose  the  Ed,«jn 
Phonograph  is  ideal.  It  .s  always  r.gh 
Ihere  and  always  ready-the  ever-present 
entertainer.  „„rt.i-t«« 


ONCE  there  was  an  old  maid  who  said  that 
she  did  not  need  to  many.  She  had 
a  parrot  that  swore,  a  monkejr  that 
chewed  tobacco  and  a  cat  that  went  out  nights. 
The  man  who  has  an  Edison  Phonograph  might 
say  he  never  needs  to  go  anywhere  for  amusement 
as  he  has  an  instrument  that  will  play  dance  music, 
sing  the  popular  songs,  tcll  iiinny  stories,  render 
the  old  ballads,  give  selections  from  grand  opera 
and  play  rag-time,  all  with  equal  facility. 


EwsON  Silhouette  Ads. — Newspaper  display  obtained  by  the  use 
of  a  black  silhouette  in  connection  with  simple  typesetting. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  73 

to  the  office  of  each  of  the  other  newspapers.  Each 
newspaper  makes  a  stereotyped  plate  from  the  matrix, 
80  that  the  advertisement  is  typographically  the  same 
in  each. 

The  best  method  is  to  have  the  advertisement  set  in 
what  is  known  as  a  job  printing  office,  #nd  when  it  is 
finally  approved  to  nmke  an  electrotype,  which  electro- 
type is  sent  to  the  American  Press  Association,  or  some 
similar  distributor  of  plates.  The  number  of  plates 
desired,  of  course,  depends  upon  the  number  of  mediums 
in  which  the  advertisement  is  to  be  inserted.  The.se 
are  sent  by  express  or  post  to  the  newspapers,  while  the 
agency  sends  out  the  specific  orders  for  placing,  accom- 
panied by  proofs  of  the  advertising.  This  applies  to 
newspapers  rather  than  to  magazines. 

The  advertisements  are  usually  made  in  sets  and  sent 
with  a  broadside  ^  showing  proofs  of  the  advertisements, 
and  these  are  numbered  in  the  order  of  insertion  with 

from  the  matrix,  after  which  it  is  used  just  as  a  regular  electro- 
type or  cut  in  the  page  of  the  paper,  and  a  second  stereotyped 
plate  is  made  from  the  entire  page. 

*  Advertising  intended  to  be  run  in  a  great  many  publications 
is  usually  prepared  a  long  time  in  advance,  an  entire  series  being 
prepared  at  once.  These  advertisements  are  then  made  up  into 
printing-plates  and  shipped  in  sets,  with  a  sheet  of  directions,  to 
each  newspaper  which  will  run  the  series.  This  sheet  is  for  the 
foreman,  and  is  called  a  "broadside,"  and  is  intended  to  be 
pasted  upon  the  wall  in  front  of  the  "make-up"  so  that  he  can 
be  sure  of  inserting  the  advertisements  in  the  right  order.  At 
the  top  of  the  sheet  are  printed  complete  instructions  as  to  posi- 
tion— for  instance,  local  page,  woman 's  page,  top  of  column, 
next  to  reading  matter,  or  whatever  the  contract  calls  for.  Then 
follow  proofs  of  the  advertisements  in  the  order  in  which  they 
are  to  be  inserted.  A  more  convenient  form,  especially  when  a 
great  many  advertisements  are  used  in  a  series  is  a  series  of 
sheets  fastened  at  the  top,  with  the  advertisements  printed  on  one 
side  in  consecutive  order. 


•74        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

the  dates  attached,  and  usually  accompanied  by  printed 
instructions  for  the  foreman  who  makes  up  the  paper. 

To  a  newspaper  large  enough  to  maintain  its  own 
stereotyping  plant — that  is,  one  which  does  not  print 
from  the  original  type  but  which  prints  from  plates — 
only  a  mat  is  sent.  A  mat  (short  for  matrix)  is  a  papier- 
mache  mold  of  the  face  of  the  advertisement,  from  which 
the  newspaper  makes  its  own  stereotyped  plate  for 
printing  the  advertisement. 

Large  newspapers  are  printed  on  web  perfecting 
presses,  in  which  the  paper  is  unrolled  from  a  large 
roll,  and  the  type  matter  is  bent  into  a  semicircular 
form  so  as  to  print  very  rapidly.  It  would  be  impossible 
to  bend  a  form  of  type,  so  a  stereotyped  plate  is  made 
in  the  form  of  a  curve. 

All  other  newspapers  are  printed  upon  flat  bed  presses 
from  the  original  type. 

Usually  a  complete  electrotyped  plate  (more  durable 
than  a  stereotyped  plate)  is  made  for  each  magazine, 
and  in  most  cases,  original  half-tone  cuts  are  furnished. 
Most  magazines  print  from  electrotypes  made  from  this 
original,  while  the  original  is  preserved  in  case  of  any 
accident  on  the  press.  Some  magazines,  on  account  of 
the  size  of  the  edition,  make  several  duplicates  of  each 
form  of  type  and  print  from  them  simultaneously,  and 
the  making  of  electrotypes  from  electrotypes  greatly  im- 
pairs the  printing  qualities  of  the  plate.  An  original  is 
necessary  where  good  printing  is  desired. 


§  11 

You  must  consider  then  that  an  agency  is  a  group  of 
men,  each  one  with  some  specific  qualification  to  fit  him 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  75 

for  a  certain  department,  but  each  one  with  a  more  or 
less  thorough  knowledge  of  advertising,  so  that  in  eon- 
sultation  the  net  ability  of  this  group  of  men  measures 
the  service  which  that  agency  is  able  to  render.  . 

In  describing  briefly  the  functions  of  an  agency,  not 
much  attention  has  been  given  to  the  most  important 
things  that  an  agency  does ;  namely,  the  preparation  of 
plan  and  copy,  because  in  a  subsequent  chapter  this 
purely  creative  work  of  advertising  is  considered  much 
more  fully. 

The  commercial  and  bookkeeping  side  of  an  agency, 
however,  is  just  as  important,  and  while  it  does  not 
differ  in  its  accuracy  from  any  well-conducted  business, 
such  as  a  bank  or  an  insurance  company,  it  has  its  own 
peculiarities. 

The  income  of  most  agencies  is  derived  from  commis- 
sions paid  by  the  publications  in  which  the  advertising 
is  inserted.  Whether  this  commission  is  a  charge  against 
the  advertiser  or  not  is  a  debatable  question.  Of  course, 
as  the  advertiser  pays  the  entire  bill,  he  really  and 
ultimately  pays  the  commission.  Publishers,  however, 
recognize  that  the  creative  advertising  agent  performs  a 
service  for  them  which  they  could  not  obtain  in  any 
other  way.  The  agent  maintains  the  volume  of  advertis- 
ing. Advertising  is  so  uncertain  a  method  of  producing 
business,  when  ignorant ly  applied,  that  if  the  advertiser 
were  unassisted  and  allowed  to  handle  his  advertising 
direct,  the  percentage  of  failures  would  be  so  great  that 
the  volume  of  advertising  would  naturally  shrink.  No 
publication  can  afford  to  keep  a  suf!ieiently  large  staff 
of  competent  and  trained  advertising  men  to  help  the 
advertiser  do  his  advertising  right.  He  is  very  glad, 
therefore,  to  pay  to  competent  advertising  agents  a  com- 
mission for  doing  this. 


76        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

This  commission  amounts  to  thirteen  per  cent,  upon 
the  gross  cost  of  space  in  most  national  mediums.  Fig- 
ured differently,  it  is  fifteen  per  cent,  upon  the  net  cost 
of  space — that  is,  the  cost  billed  to  the  agent.  Thus, 
thirteen  per  cent,  is  an  advance  of  about  five  per  cent, 
over  the  old  rate  of  ten  per  cent,  upon  the  gross.  It  rep- 
resents as  nearly  as  can  be  estimated  the  amount  of 
money  that  an  agent  should  receive  in  order  to  give  the 
kind  of  service  that  has  been  outlined  above  and  make  a 
profit  commensurate  with  his  ability. 

Sixty-five  advertising  agents  located  in  New  York  City 
have  organized  themselves  into  an  association.  One  pur- 
pose of  this  association  is  to  secure,  among  other  things, 
a  commission  basis  more  nearly  representing  the  cost  of 
the  kind  of  service  now  demanded  by  the  national  adver- 
tiser. The  subject  was  quite  fully  presented  to  the 
publishers  of  national  mediums  and  quite  generally 
adopted  by  them.  The  platform  which  seems  to  offer 
the  most  equitable  basis  for  the  recognition  of  agents  is 
here  given  in  full.  It  represents  the  most  recent  phase 
of  the  history  of  the  adjustment  between  agents,  pub- 
lishers and  advertisers  which  is  fair  to  all  three. 

The  Association  of  New  York  Advertising  Agents  sets  forth 
the  following  definition  of  the  relations  of  agents  with  adver- 
tisers and  publishers. 

This  Association  believes : 

That  an  Advertising  Agency  should  be  an  association  of 
specially  trained  men  having  expert  knowledge  of  merchan- 
dising and  advertising,  who  in  composite  afford  wider  spe- 
cialized infonnation  affecting  advertising  than  can  be  profi^;- 
ably  employed  in  the  organization  of  any  one  advertiser. 

That  the  employment  of  an  Advertising  Agency  by  an  ad- 
vertiser is  necessary  to  obtain  the  best  results  from  adver- 
tising. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  77 

First — That  he  may  benefit  by  tliis  specialized  information. 

Second — That  ho  may  have  an  otitMido  viewpoint  denied  to 
those  eng'affed  in  tlie  continuous  promotion  of  a  sinjfle  busi- 
ness or  kindred  businesses. 

Third — That  he  may  have  an  ajrency  do  for  him  the  various 
detailed  work  essential  to  successful  advert isinj^,  which  work 
an  aprency  can  do  better  and  more  economically. 

That  an  Advertisinj*  Agency's  special  knowledjje  of  mer- 
chandisiiiff  should  embrace 

1.  Varied  experience  in  many  markets. 

2.  Familiarity  with  merchandising  methods  in  each. 

3.  Knowlcil^'e  of  distnbuting  methods. 

4.  Experience  in  disi)layinji;'  j^oods. 

5.  Acquaintance  with  kindred  jiroblems  affecting  the  ade- 
quate depicting?  of  the  product  to  be  advertised. 

That  an  Advertisinjj:  Agency's  special  experience  in  adver- 
tising should  embrace  knowledge  of 

1.  The  relative  value  and  cost  of  various  advertising  media. 

2.  Methods  of  presentation — written  and  pictorial. 

3.  Mechanical  methods — including  art,  engraving  and 
printing  processes  on  the  one  hand  and  the  adaptability  of 
these  various  methods  to  ])articular  media  on  the  other. 

4.  Supplemental  literature — catalogs,  booklets,  circulars, 
displays  and  follow-up  methods. 

5.  Checking  and  billing. 

That  the  advertiser  should  safeguard  the  success  of  his  ad- 
vertising by  examining  carefully  the  fitness  of  the  agency  he 
employs  from  the  standpoint  of  both  experience  and  ecjuip- 
ment. 

That  the  publisher  should  minimize  the  chance  of  the 
employment  of  incompetent  agencies  by  strictly  limiting 
the  recognition  of  agents  to  those  who  demonstrate  their 
fitness. 

That  before  beginning  advertising  the  advertiser  should 
guard  against  failure  by  insisting  on  a  thorough  acquaintance 
by  the  agent  with  merchandising  conditions  iu  his  field  as 
well  as  with  his  merchandising  methods. 


78        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

That  the  agent  and  publisher  should  advise  the  advertiser 
against  advertising  without  adequate  preparation. 

That  the  advertiser  should  pay  the  necessary  expense  of 
this  preliminary  vpork  or  provide  for  it  in  his  advertising 
appropriation. 

That  the  tripartite  relation  of  advertiser,  publisher  and 
agent  is  necessary  to  the  economic  administration  of  adver- 
tising and  that  all  three  parties  to  it  are  mutually  benefited 
by  it. 

That  the  first  obligation  of  both  publisher  and  agent  is  to 
make  the  advertising  profitable  to  the  advertiser. 

That  the  agency's  work  reduces  costs  to  the  publisher  and 
its  compensation  by  the  publisher,  therefore,  is  justified  on 
an  economic  basis. 

That  the  curtailment  of  agency  service  would  decrease  the 
value  of  advertising  and  would  increase  the  price  of  white 
space  to  the  advertiser  by  forcing  publishers  to  replace  agency 
service  by  more  expensive  and  less  efficient  development  work, 
which  obviously  could  not  be  disinterested. 

That  the  agency  receives  no  -eompensation  in  any  sense  for 
soliciting  specific  business  for  any  one  specific  medium. 

That  the  agency  receives  its  compensation  in  the  form  of  a 
differential  from  the  publisher  for  these,  among  other,  specific 
reasons : 

1.  For  the  service  it  renders  to  the  advertiser,  which  in- 
creases the  productiveness,  value  and  continuity  of  the  ad- 
vertising. 

2.  For  the  guarantee  of  accounts — which  in  few  other 
businesses  involves  so  great  financial  responsibility  in  propor- 
tion to  its  profits. 

3.  For  the  creation  and  development  of  new  business,  in 
accordance  with  the  economic  law,  which  in  every  business 
fixes  prices  to  include  the  development  expense. 

That  the  publisher  should  make  recognition  a  eei'tificate  of 
good  business  character  and  of  financial  responsibility  and  an 
indorsement  of  efficiency,  so  that  authorization  to  do  busi- 
ness may  rest  on  a  sound  basis. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  79 

That  havinjf  trnuited  nn-opiition  t<»  tlii'  uirt'iit  aiul  iiuloi-st'd 
him  as  qualified  to  render  service  to  the  advertiser,  the  pub- 
lisher has  a  right  to  investigate  the  quality  of  the  sernce 
rendered. 

(This  declaration  is  made  with  the  specific  reservation  that 
the  publisher,  being  interested,  may  not  properly  l>e  judge 
of  the  media  used.) 

That  the  right  of  the  publisher  to  investigate  service  en- 
tails the  obligation  to  .'^ee  that  service  is  rendered. 

That  the  publisher  owes  it  to  the  advertiser  and  to  such 
agents  as  live  up  to  their  obligations  to  advertiser  and  pub- 
lisher to  limit  or  withdraw  recognition  from  those  agents  who 
do  not  live  up  to  these  obligations. 

That  the  publisher  should  detennine  the  right  of  an  agtMit 
to  continued  recognition  on  the  basis  of  the  adequacy  of  the 
service  rendered  to  the  advertiser. 

That  the  publisher  should  make  public  the  names  of  all 
jnfranchised  by  them,  and  that  no  differential  be  alloweil  to 
others  than  those  whose  names  are  so  published. 

As  has  been  said,  the  magazines  have  agreed  with  the 
policy  suggested  in  the  above  declarations.  Many  of 
them  had  already  done  so,  even  before  the  agents  ex- 
pressed their  views.  While  this  book  is  being  written 
negotiations  are  being  conducted  to  bring  the  newspa- 
pers to  the  same  uniform  arrangement.  It  is  expected 
that  ultimately  all  mediums  will  be  on  exactly  the  same 
basis  with  the  agents.  All  agents  worthy  of  recognition 
will  be  recognized  by  all  mediums,  will  receive  the 
same  conmiission,  the  same  cash  discount,  and  the  same 
treatment. 

The  four  publications  of  the  Curtis  Publishing  Com- 
pany have  a  written  agreement  with  all  of  the  agents 
whom  they  recognize.  This  agreement,  which  is  a  model 
of  the  best  practice  in  this  regard,  is  here  printed  ia 
part. 


80        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Date 19.. 

Agency  Terms 

Reserving  to  The  Curtis  Publishing  Company  the  right  at 
any  time,  upon  written  notice,  to  annul  or  change  the  con- 
ditions of  this  agreement,  we  will  hereafter,  and  until  further 
notice,  accept  ordei-s  from  you  for  advertising  space  in  The 
Ladies'  Home  Journal,  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  The 
Country  Gentleman,  or  any  other  periodicals  controlled  by 
The  Curtis  Publishing  Company,  on  the  following  terms: 

First:  Orders  will  be  accepted  only  when  made  out  at 
full  gross  rates  without  stipulation  of  agency  commission 
or  deduction.  .  .  . 

Second :  Subject  to  and  upon  the  terms  hereof,  bills  will  be 
rendered  to  you  monthly,  subject  to  thirteen  per  cent.  (13%) 
agency  differential  and  three  per  cent.  (3%)  cash  discount 
(figured  on  the  net  amount). 

Third:  This  agency  differential,  in  the  case  of  each  adver- 
tiser, is  conditional  upon  our  being  satisfied  that  you  have 
been  and  are  rendering  adequate  service  calculated  to  develop 
his  business,  and  further  upon  our  being  satisfied  that  you 
are  charging  the  advertiser  gross  rates  on  all  our  advertis- 
ing. We  will  not  be  so  satisfied,  however,  and  will  make 
no  allowance  if  we  conclude  you  are  charging  rates  on  any 
periodicals  in  such  way  as  inures  to  our  disadvantage  in  the 
matter  of  our  own  rates.  You  are  not  to  make  any  charge 
to  any  person  in  such  way  as  would,  in  our  judgment, 
directly  or  indirectly,  injure  our  business  or  interests.  The 
expression  of  our  dissatisfaction  in  any  particjilar  shall  be 
fijial.  But  we  will  gladly  alter  our  decision  in  any  particular 
case  if  you  are  able  to  make  us  an  explanation  which  will 
satisfy  us. 

Fourth:  The  cash  discount  of  three  per  cent.  (3%)  will 
be  figured  on  your  net  bill,  and  will  be  allowed  only  upon 
the  condition  that  payment  is  made  by  you  in  full  during 
the  month  in  which  the  bill  is  rendered.     You  may  allow  a 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  81 

cash  discount  of  three  per  cent.  (3%)  on  all  jjtoss  hills  ttt  y«»ii 
for  space,  to  your  clients,  provided  they  pay  (your  bill)  dur- 
ing the  month  in  which  we  bill  you,  and  only  upon  this  con- 
dition. 

Signed  by Advertising  Director 

for  The  Curtis  Publishing  Company 

The  foregoing  expresses  the  understanding  with  The  Curtis 
Publishing  Company  under  which  the  undersigned  acts. 

Signed  by 

The  advertising  director  of  an  important  group  of 
publications  has  expressed  the  attitude  of  most  publish- 
ers who  wish  to  conduct  their  businesses  in  a  way  that 
will  meet  the  approval  of  intelligent  advertisers  -and 
competent  agents,  when  he  says : 

"During  the  last  ten  years — and  the  last  five  years 
more  particularly — it  has  been  emphatically  borne  in 
upon  intelligent  advertising  men  generally  that  the  great 
need  of  all  advertising  interests  is  a  readjustment  of 
point  of  view  and  a  readjustment  of  effort.  With  this 
has  come  great  emphasis  upon  the  necessity  of  doing 
everything  possible  to  insure  the  success  of  the  adver- 
tising. The  development  in  the  requirements  of  an 
advertising  agent  for  definite  tangible  service  to  the 
advertiser  has  grown  by  leaps  and  bounds,  and  the  end 
is  not  yet. 

"The  record  of  advertising  failures,  carefully  investi- 
gated, indicates  almost  invariably  a  lack  of  proper  con- 
ception of  the  conditions  necessary  to  advertising  suc- 
cess, or  a  lack  of  that  service,  which  is  necessary  to 
insure  success,  or  both. 

"The  high-grade  publisher  of  the  present  day  is  not 
so  seriously  concerned  about  the  promotion  of  new  ad- 


82        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

vertising,  but  is  very  seriously  concerned  about  taking 
care  of  the  advertising  which  already  exists,  knowing 
that  the  success  of  the  existing  advertising  is  the  great- 
est promotive  force  possible  in  the  development  of  new 
business. 

"It  is  a  serious  responsibility  to  influence  a  manufac- 
turer to  change  his  entire  method  of  doing  business,  to 
change  his  selling  organization,  the  style  of  his  package, 
even  change  the  character  of  his  goods,  to  fit  into  selling 
plans  and  a  publicity  campaign  as  outlined  by  an  ad- 
vertising agent.  If  the  conditions  are  right,  plans  well 
laid,  assistance  conscientiously  given,  a  substantial  ser- 
vice is  rendered  not  only  to  the  advertiser  but  to  the 
consuming  public. 

"Only  meritorious  goods  can  be  advertised  with  per- 
manent success.  It  is  decidedly  to  the  consumer's  ad- 
vantage to  be  able  to  identify  an  article  of  quality,  to 
get  it  the  second  time,  and  to  know  what  its  value  is. 
In  conducting  business  only  those  principles  which  are 
fundamentally  sound  and  right  can  endure. 

"Any  conditions  entering  into  the  relations  of  an 
advertising  agent  with  an  advertiser,  which  depreciate 
the  service  that  the  agent  renders,  must  necessarily  be 
detrimental  to  the  interests  of  advertising  generally  and 
the  interests  of  the  advertiser  in  particular. 

"The  specific  service  which  is  rendered  by  an  adver- 
tising agent  to  the  advertiser  in  any  given  case  cannot  be 
outlined  in  detail  without  a  knowledge  of  conditions  sur- 
rounding the  advertiser's  business,  as  no  two  manufac- 
turers or  merchants  have  precisely  the  same  conditions 
to  meet.  The  service  to  be  rendered  by  an  advertising 
agent  is  to  a  large  degree  professional  and  based  upon 
experience. 

' '  The  service  which  the  publisher  pays  for  in  the  dif- 


SELLERS  OP  ADVERTISING  83 

ferential  allowed  to  the  advertising  agent  is  necessarily 
limited.  The  development  in  the  demand  on  the  part  of 
the  advertiser  and  the  desire  on  the  part  of  the  agent 
%  for  a  better  and  more  extended  service  is,  in  many  cases, 
carrying  that  service  to  a  point  where  of  necessity  the 
agent  should  and  does  receive  remuneration  over  and 
above  the  differential  allowed  by  the  publisher. 

"The  service  rendered  by  the  advertising  agent  com- 
prehends much  more  than  merely  writing  copy  or  other 
advertising  literature  or  the  superintendence  of  the 
making  of  illustrations  and  plates.  According  to  our 
conception  of  real  service,  the  advertising  agent  might 
render  in  one  interview  service  worth,  to  the  publisher 
and  to  the  advertiser,  more  than  the  total  of  the  full 
year's  commissions.  Were  the  service  rendered  by  the 
advertising  agent  simply  a  matter  of  copy,  there  would 
be  very  little  reason  for  his  existence.  The  advertising 
agent,  in  consultation  with  the  would-be  advertiser  who 
places  before  him  an  intelligent  statement  of  the  facts 
and  conditions  surrounding  his  business,  may  be  able  by 
reason  of  his  particular  experience  with  other  adver- 
tisers to  give  him  information  and  advice,  in  one  short 
interview,  which  will  save  him  thousands  of  dollars  and 
set  in  motion  forces  which  will  bring  a  tremendous  in- 
crease in  his  business. 

* '  Before  any  advertising  agent  can  be  of  much  service 
to  either  advertiser  or  publisher  he  must  have  the  facts 
showing  the  possible  market  for  the  goods  under  con- 
sideration. He  must  know  the  trade  conditions,  the 
attitude  of  the  retail  merchants  and  jobbers.  He  must 
have  a  knowledge  of  the  special  obstacles  and  difficulties 
that  stand  in  the  way  of  the  advertiser.  If  these  facts 
are  not  already  at  the  command  of  the  advertiser  to 
place  before  the  agent  for  consideration,  the  advertiser 


84        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

should  see  that  they  are  obtained  for  his  consideration. 

"In  taking  up  an  advertising  campaign,  there  are  a 
great  many  details  to  be  considered  in  which  the  judg- 
ment and  advice  of  the  advertising  agent  are  of  vital ' 
importance.  It  may  be  necessary  to  change  the  form  of 
the  package;  or  to  get  up  a  trade-mark  or  change  one 
that  already  exists.  It  may  be  necessary  to  create  a  new 
sales  organization  or  to  change  an  old  one  or  to  change 
the  terms  upon  which  the  business  has  been  carried  on 
with  either  jobber  or  retailer.  Or,  it  may  be  necessary 
to  improve  the  quality  of  the  product  or  to  change  the 
price.  Consideration  of  all  these  things  is  part  of  the 
service  of  an  advertising  agent.  It  is  his  ability  to  enter 
into  the  solution  of  such  questions  as  these  that  makes 
his  service  valuable  to  the  advertiser  and  protects  the 
interests  of  the  publisher.  These  conditions  are  all  pre- 
liminary to  serious  consideration  of  actual  advertising. 

"The  agent  must  work  out  very  carefully  detailed 
plans  for  publicity,  which  fit  into  the  activities  of  the 
sales  organization.  Among  other  things  this  involves 
the  amount  of  the  appropriation,  selection  of  the  media, 
the  size  and  frequency  of  insertion.  Dependent  on  this, 
follows  consideration  of  the  style  of  copy  to  be  used, 
the  type  of  illustration,  and  the  preparation  of  the  text, 
the  working-out  of  follow-up  plans  to  be  used  with  the 
consumer,  the  retail  trade  or  the  jobber,  or  all  three  as 
the  case  may  be. 

"As  the  efficiency  of  the  agent's  service  to  the  adver- 
tiser vitally  affects  the  interests  of  the  publisher  whose 
space  is  used  as  a  vehicle  to  promote  the  advertiser 's  in- 
terests (and  more  than  mere  space  is  sold — its  influence 
and  goodwill  as  well  are  involved),  it  is  perfectly  logical, 
therefore,  that  the  publisher  should  pay  the  agent  a  dif- 
ferential when  ...  he  has  rendered  adequate  service. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  85 

"It  is  on  broad,  fundamental  principles  that  we  wish 
to  interpret  our  contract  as  to  what  is  satisfactory 
agency  service. 

"There  are  many  things  that  an  advertising  agent  is 
liable  to  be  called  upon  to  do  for  an  advertiser  in  the 
carrying-on  of  his  advertising  and  selling  campaign  that 
cannot  possibly  be  covered  by  the  differential  which  the 
publisher  allows." 

When  an  estimate  has  been  prepared  as  a  part  of  a 
plan  for  an  advertising  campaign  and  submitted  to  an 
advertiser  and  approved,  this  is  the  amount  that  is  billed 
to  the  advertiser  for  that  space.  The  bills  from  the  pub- 
lications, however,  are  rendered  at  net,  the  commission 
being  deducted,  and  are  so  paid.  Usually  a  cash  dis- 
count is  allowed  which,  in  the  case  of  the  magazines 
and  some  other  publications,  is  three  per  cent.,  but  this 
cash  discount  is  passed  on  to  the  advertiser.  Its  object 
is  to  insure  the  prompt  payment  of  bills.  The  work  of 
an  advertising  agency  consisting  largely  of  service  and 
dealing  in  a  very  perishable  commodity,  cannot  be  sub- 
jected to  the  strain  of  deferred  payments.  It  is  neces- 
sary to  the  publisher  that  the  advertising  agent  with 
whom  he  deals  shall  be  solvent,  and  in  order  to  insure 
that  solvency  he  offers  a  special  inducement  for  the 
prompt  payment  of  bills,  and  he  even  goes  so  far  as  to 
insist  that  both  the  agent  and  his  client  shall  take  ad- 
vantage of  this  discount. 

As  can  easily  be  seen,  after  a  publication  has  gone  to 
press  with  the  advertisement  in  it,  that  space  is  not 
worth  anything  to  anyone  else.  Therefore,  if  the  adver- 
tiser does  not  pay  it,  it  cannot  be  sold  for  the  benefit  of 
his  account.  It  is  a  dead  loss  to  the  agent  who  is  liable 
for  its  cost  to  the  publisher. 


86        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

In  the  case  of  newspapers  the  discount  is  much 
smaller,  and  newspaper  bills  are  by  the  very  nature  of 
the  case  carried  for  a  much  longer  time.  They  are 
usually  payable  monthly,  but  as  all  the  insertions  for 
the  past  month  must  be  checked  up  and  verified  before 
the  bill  can  be  sent  to  the  client,  it  is  usually  about  sixty 
days  after  the  insertion  of  the  first  ad  before  the  first 
payment  to  newspapers  is  made.  Most  agencies  insist 
that  for  newspaper  space  they  shall  be  paid  first,  before 
they  pay  the  newspapers,  as  otherwise  a  very  large  cap- 
ital would  be  required  for  the  purpose  of  paying  the 
newspaper  bills. 

The  work  of  checking  up  the  insertions,  especially  in 
newspapers,  is  a  very  complicated  one,  requiring  careful  ■ 
attention.  Usually  the  checkers  are  told  what  advertise- 
ments to  look  for  and  in  which  publications,  but  it  is 
necessary  for  them  to  scan  all  issues  of  these  papers  to 
note  not  only  the  actual  insertion  of  the  advertisement 
and  the  amount  of  space  that  has  been  given  it,  but  also 
its  page,  position,  and  whether  it  violates  any  of  the 
terms  of  the  contract,  as,  for  instance,  whether  it  is 
placed  on  a  page  with  patent  medicine  advertisements. 
Also  the  checkers  must  frequently  check  all  competitors' 
advertising.  For  instance,  a  man  advertising  a  given 
article  wishes  to  have  his  agency  tell  him  just  how  much 
space  the  manufacturer  of  a  similar  competing  article 
is  using,  so  that  there  is  a  good  deal  of  work  to  be  done 
by  the  checking  department  all  the  time. 


§  12 

There  are  a  number  of  agencies  which  do  not  place 
business,  and  which  are  called  "service  shops."     They 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING 


87 


are  not  strictly  advertisinp  agencies  because  they  have 
no  real  connection  with  the  mediums  in  which  the  adver- 
tising is  placed.  They  perform  a  very  miscellaneous 
service — sometimes  a  very  good  one — in  helping  to  plan 


Keep  my  name  out 
of  the  paperr  said 
me  ma^ate  to  the 
xepotters~and  iHagy 
did  Just  as  if  tkey 
tJiou^t  he  meant  it. 
IheOmitted  Name'  in 

tixeMayAmericam 


American  Magazine  Hand-lettered  Ad. — Hand-lettering  with  an 
appropriate,  free-hand  border.  The  omission  of  display,  the 
white  margin  of  space,  made  this  particular  series  of  news- 
paper ads  very  distinctive. 

and  prepare  advertising  copy  of  all  sorts,  not  only  for 
placing  in  mediums,  but  for  distribution  by  mail.  They 
usually  consist  of  a  group  of  two  or  three  men,  with 
some  special  ability,  such  as  the  producing  of  a  par- 
ticular kind  of  copy,  or  a  special  kind  of  designing,  or 


88        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

excellent  typographical  skill,  all  of  which  commodities 
are  constantly  bought  by  advertisers  and  by  publishers. 
Some  of  them  accept  accounts  in  the  same  way  as  do 
the  regular  agencies,  and  when  the  plan  of  campaign  has 
been  completed  it  is  placed  through  what  is  known  as  a 
placing  agency — that  is,  an  agency  which  does  not  render 
any  service  to  its  customer,  and  accepts  contracts  for 
placing  at  cut' rates — for  less  than  the  regular  commis- 
sion. Some  of  these  service  agencies,  as  they  are  called, 
for  lack  of  a  better  word,  are  stronger  upon  the  art  side 
than  upon  the  copy  side,  while  others  make  a  specialty  of 
writing  copy. 

There  are  also  a  number  of  advertising  men,  with 
more  or  less  valuable  and  varied  experience,  who  are 
not  connected  with  any  organization  at  all.  They  charge 
a  fee  for  writing  the  copy  for  a  campaign,  just  as  a 
writer  accepts  a  commission  for  preparing  an  article 
for  a  magazine.  Some  of  these  men  do  very  good  work 
and  are  highly  paid  for  it.  They  range  all  the  way  from 
mere  itinerant  vendors  of  ads,  chiefly  to  retailers,  up 
to  men  who  receive  quite  respectable  fees  for  advice, 
counsel  and  a  small  number  of  carefully  prepared  adver- 
tisements. 

Advertising  has  also  produced  other  specialists.  Sev- 
eral lawyers  devote  themselves  exclusively  to  the  intri- 
cacies of  the  law  as  it  pertains  to  advertising,  just  as 
we  have  patent  lawyers  or  corporation  lawyers.  One 
of  these  has  written  a  valuable  book,  in  two  volumes, 
upon  ' '  The  Law  of  Advertising  and  Sales, ' '  ^  covering 
such  important  things  as  copyright  laws,  infringement 

^Clowry  Chapman:  The  Law  of  Advertising  and  Sales.  This 
book  should  be  read  hj  all  interested  in  advertising.  It  covers 
its  subject  broadly  and  considers  advertising  in  other  than  its 
legal  aspect. 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  89 

of  trade-marks,  imitation  of  style  of  advertising,  postal 
laws  and  other  legal  troubles  which  have  been  created  by 
or  grown  out  of  the  practice  of  advertising. 

Advertising  is  attracting  the  attention  of  men  occu- 
pying chairs  in  colleges  and  universities.  Professor 
Walter  Dill  Scott^  of  the  University  of  Chicago  has 
written  three  books,  in  which  the  principles  of  psychology 
are  applied  to  advertising  tests,  and  Profes.sor  Hugo 
Miinsterberg  ^  has  at  least  one  book  on  another  aspect  of 
the  same  fascinating  study.  Professor  Parsons '  of  the 
New  York  School  of  Fine  and  Applied  Art  has  both 
lectured  and  written  upon  the  principles  of  design  as 
applied  to  advertising  design. 

These  men  are  not  perhaps  sellers  of  advertising,  but 
their  work  helps  the  practicing  advertising  man  who  has 
hitherto  had  little  to  do  with  the  theory  of  his  work  as 
compared  with  its  practice.  There  is  at  least  one  organi- 
zation which  makes  a  specialty  of  supplying  statistics  to 
advertisers.  It  will  make  any  kind  of  an  investigation 
pertaining  to  advertising,  just  as  Dun  or  Bradstreet 
will  make  an  investigation  as  to  the  financial  standing  of 
a  concern,  and  render  written  reports.  It  also  has  a 
regular  printed  service  which  may  be  subscribed  for  at  a 
fixed  rate  per  year,  which  gives  from  time  to  time  statis- 
tics and  information  valuable  to  advertisers  and  adver- 
tising agencies. 

Another  development  of  advertising  work  which  pos- 
sibly belongs  under  this  heading  is  that  of  the  advertis- 
ing syndicate.  These  syndicates  deal  almost  altogether 
with  retailers.    The  theory  is  that  an  advertisement  pre- 

*  Walter  DUl  Scott:     Increasing  Human  Efficiency  in  Business; 
The  Theory  of  Advertising;  The  Psychology  of  Advertising. 
*Hugo  Miinsterberg:  The  Market  and  Psychology. 
•Frank  Alvah  Parsons:  Principles  of  Advertising  Arrangement. 


90        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

pared,  say,  for  a  jeweler  or  a  grocer,  and  used  in  one 
city  only,  would  be  just  as  valuable  to  a  jeweler  or 
grocer  in  any  town.  These  syndicates  prepare  all  kinds 
of  advertising,  illustrated  and  otherwise,  for  insertion  in 
nev/spapers  and  other  mediums,  or  for  distribution  by 
mail,  and,  by  reason  of  the  large  number  of  purchasers 
for  each  given  advertisement,  they  are  able  to  produce 
good  copy  and  good  designing  at  a  relatively  low  cost, 
which  brings  them  within  reach  of  even  the  retailer  who 
spends  a  very  small  amount  upon  his  advertising. 

Out  of  this  have  grown  services  of  different  kinds, 
some  of  them  quite  elaborate  and  expensive  but  of  the 
syndicate  nature.  Most  of  them  are  for  some  one  par- 
ticular line  or  trade,  such  as  shoes  or  dry  goods  or 
clothing. 

Most  national  advertisers  now  offer  good  advertising 
services  to  retailers  who  sell  their  goods.  Each  of  these 
things,  however,  will  be  more  fully  explained  and  de- 
fined in  the  chapter  devoted  to  the  retailer  and  his 
advertising. 

§  13 

In  order  to  relate  them  to  their  part  in  the  work  of 
advertising,  the  various  mechanical  trades  which  have 
to  do  with  the  production  of  advertising  may  be  men- 
tioned here. 

First  comes  the  printer — not  the  printer  of  the  news- 
papers and  magazines  which,  by  their  circulation,  be- 
come advertising  mediums,  but  the  printer  of  advertis- 
ing. To  a  great  many  advertisers  he  is  a  seller  of  adver- 
tising. The  printer  who  supplies  the  hand-bill,  or 
dodger,  as  it  is  called  in  country  towns,  not  infrequently 
supplies  the  copy.     Printers  have  found  that  it  helps 


SELLERS  OF  ADVERTISING  91 

to  bring  them  biiKincKs  from  advertisers  to  be  prepared 
with  suggestions  for  some  kind  of  advertising  that  can 
be  incorporated  in  the  form  of  printing. 

The  next  step  comes  naturally.  The  large  printing 
houses  have  created  departments  of  advertising  service, 
and  employ  both  writers  and  arti.sts  to  produce  adver- 
tising copy,  which  is  then  prepared  in  the  form  of  book- 
lets, folders,  cards  to  be  mailed,  leaflets,  envelope  stuf- 
fers  and  other  forms  of  small  ammunition  of  advertising 
warfare. 

The  process  engravers  also  belong  in  this  category. 
Many  of  them  have  given  especial  attention  to  the  pro- 
duction of  advertising.  The  larger  ones  retain  adver- 
tising counsel  to  help  advise  their  clients,  and  many 
of  them  are  experts  in  the  preparation  of  process  plates 
for  use  in  magazines  and  newspapers,  as  well  as  for  pro- 
ducing the  finer  sort  of  advertising  printing.  Many 
lithographers  maintain  a  staff  of  commercial  artists  to 
suggest  and  carry  out  ideas  for  their  customers. 

Even  the  paper  makers  devote  much  thought  to  the 
manufacture  of  paper  for  advertising  purposes.  This 
takes  the  form  of  the  invention  of  new  stocks  and  sur- 
faces, novel  colors  and  other  expressions  of  the  paper- 
making  art,  intended  especially  to  appeal  to  the  adver- 
tiser for  use  in  his  own  advertising  printing.  Many 
paper  makers  send  out  their  samples  of  paper  in  the 
form  of  advertising  products,  to  show  how  particularly 
well  adapted  they  ftre,  for  instance,  for  the  printing  of 
half-tone  cuts  representing  machinery  or  other  manu- 
factured articles,  or  to  be  embossed,  hot-pressed,  die- 
stamped  or  otherwise  manipulated  for  the  heavy  covers 
of  large  catalogs  and  booklets. 

A  great  deal  of  the  work  done  by  electrotypers  is  for 
advertising  purposes,  and  even  the  bookbirn^^ic  is  callcfi 


92        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

upon  because  many  advertising  booklets  and  catalogs 
are  bound  in  boards,  cloth,  or  leather,  and  represent 
sometimes  more  individual  outlay  per  copy  than  books 
intended  for  sale. 


CHAPTER    IV 
BUYERS    OF   ADVERTISING 

§  1 

The  buyers  of  advertising  are  all  those  who  use  adver- 
tising to  sell  either  the  products  or  the  service  which 
they  have  to  offer  to  the  public.  The  advertiser  usually 
means  a  manufacturer  of  something  that  is  sold  in  shops, 
the  more  rapid  distribution  of  which  can  be  brought 
about  by  advertising,  but  with  the  rapid  application  of 
advertising  to  so  many  forms  of  service  which  do  not 
consist  of  a  manufactured  product,  such  as  telephones, 
electric  light,  life  insurance,  transportation,  a  wider 
term  is  needed  than  '  *  manufacturer, ' '  and  for  lack  of  a 
better  one  the  term  *  *  buyers  of  advertising ' '  is  used  here. 
They  are  one  and  all  men  who  have  sufficient  faith  to 
use  advertising  as  a  means  of  enlarging  their  businesses. 
They  are  buyers  of  advertising  whether  they  buy  it  in  a 
crude  and  primitive  form  from  printers,  lithographers, 
poster  makers  and  others,  or  whether  they  employ  the 
service  of  advertising  counsel  in  the  form  of  an  adver- 
tising agent  and  enter  upon  a  serious  campaign  which 
may  last  for  years,  and  ultimately  make  their  product  a 
household  word,  known  as  a  staple  wherever  such  goods 
are  bought  and  sold. 

But  the  advertiser  in  the  common  speech  of  the  ad- 
vertising world  is  a  manufacturer  who  either  does  or 
should  advertise  his  product.    It  is  safe  to  say  that  any 

93 


94.        THE  BUSINESS  OP  ADVERTISING 

article  which  can  be  sold  to  the  public  can  be  advertised 
to  that  same  public. 

The  wide  difference  in  advertising  attitude  on  the  part 
of  manufacturers  is  due  to  temperament.  Advertising 
requires  a  certain  state  of  mind :  a  confidence  in  the 
ultimate  success  of  advertising ;  a  belief  in  its  basic  right- 
ness,  coupled  with  a  selection  of  intelligent  help  to  carry 
it  out,  which  qualities  are  so  rare  that  really  large  adver- 
tisers are  few  and  their  success  is  commensurate  with 
their  faith. 

§2 

Years  must  elapse  before  a  manufacturer  can  find  out 
satisfactorily  that  advertising  is  a  profitable  investment. 
The  reason  for  this  is  easily  stated. 

Take  for  the  first  example  a  man  whose  product  is 
already  sold  in  many  stores  of  the  country,  and  who 
has  a  tangible  business  without  the  help  of  real  national 
advertising. 

"National  advertising"  is  used  in  this  paragraph  in 
the  sense  of  an  appeal  to  the  public.  The  man  may  have 
used  direct  advertising  to  the  retail  trade,  and,  of  course, 
every  traveling  man  he  sends  out  is  in  a  sense  an  adver- 
tisement, but  the  trade  he  has  comes  from  the  demand 
created  by  the  dealer  himself  who  places  the  goods  in 
stock,  and  who  shows  more  or  less  enthusiasm  about 
them,  according  to  his  friendliness  toward  the  manufac- 
turer, the  real  merit  of  the  goods  and  the  profit  they 
yield  to  him. 

The  manufacturer  feels  that  his  business  is  success- 
ful enough  to  warrant  the  belief  that  if  a  greater  num- 
ber of  people  were  familiar  with  his  goods,  a  greater 
number  would  buy  them.    He  adopts  advertising  as  the 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  95 

direct  and  natural  method  of  reaching  other  euHtomers 
of  the  dealers  he  has  and  all  the  customers  of  other 
dealers.  He  begins  such  advertising,  of  course,  without 
relaxing  any  of  his  present  methods  of  producing  as 
much  business  as  possible.  If  there  is  a  growth  in  his 
business  following  the  introduction  of  advertising,  he 
naturally  infers  that  the  advertising  has  been  of  some 
help,  but  there  is  no  way  of  estimating  the  exact  amount 
of  such  growth  that  is  due  to  the  advertising.  Every 
business  under  normal  conditions  and  in  normal  times 
increases  anyway.  What  proportion  of  this  increase  is 
the  so-called  normal  increase,  and  what  proportion  of  it 
is  due  to  advertising,  it  is  almost  impossible  to  deter- 
mine. The  salesmen  will  claim  some  credit,  not  only 
for  the  larger  orders  of  present  customers,  but  also 
for  the  orders  of  new  customers.  The  manufacturer 
does  not  know  how  much  of  the  pressure  brought  to 
bear  by  people  demanding  his  goods  at  stores  where 
they  are  not  sold,  has  induced  the  dealer  to  stock  them, 
and  how  much  is  due  to  the  missionary  work  of  his 
salesmen  in  interesting  new  dealers.  Then,  in  spite  of 
the  additional  pressure  brought  to  bear  by  his  advertis- 
ing, the  times  may  not  be  so  good,  and  his  sales  may 
not  reach  the  normal  of  previous  years  or  may  not 
exceed  it.  Unless  he  has  a  deep  and  an  abiding  faith  in 
advertising,  he  will  infer  that  his  advertising  has  not 
been  effective.  He  may  even  feel  that  no  advertising 
will  be  effective,  and  that  he  is  better  off  without  it. 

Advertising  history  is  full  of  such  instances  as  this, 
and  were  it  not  for  two  groups  of  promoters — namely, 
the  publishers  of  mediums  and  the  advertising  agents — 
whose  wider  experience  has  proved  to  them  that  adver- 
tising rightly  applied  is  successful,  and  who  also  have 
self-interest  as  an  inducement  to  keep  advertising  in 


96        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

force,  more  manufacturers  would  abandon  advertising 
just  before  the  results  had  become  sufficiently  conclusive 
to  be  convincing,  even  in  spite  of  the  conditions  de- 
scribed above.  Conclusive  results  are  bound  to  come  in 
the  long  run,  if  not  in  the  short  one. 

The  advertiser  who  is  known  as  a  successful  advertiser 
and  who  has  become  a  permanent  one,  looking  back  over 
a  given  period  of  years  and  comparing  sales  with  adver- 
tising expenditure,  and  who  has  also  noted  from  time 
to  time  the  evidence  that  he  must  receive  from  salesmen, 
from  dealers  and  from  the  public,  finds  that  he  has  cre- 
ated a  certain  asset  in  the  form  of  goodwill,  which  is 
very  valuable.  To  obtain  this  goodwill  requires  a  large 
expenditure  of  money,  very  intelligent  advice  and  a  good 
measure  of  dogged  pertinacity,  but  once  acquired  it  is 
easily  kept  alive  by  advertising,  and  it  soon  becomes 
more  valuable  than  any  other  asset  the  advertiser  has. 
His  plant,  his  process,  his  trained  workmen,  all  rank 
second  to  the  value  of  his  trade-mark  or  his  trade  name, 
which  to  the  public  stands  for  a  certain  quality  in  goods, 
so  much  so  that  such  a  trade-mark  could  be  sold  to  an 
entirely  different  company,  and  that  company  could 
easily  step  into  a  large  business,  provided  it  made  as 
good  a  product. 

This  is  the  real  ultimate  object  of  every  advertiser. 
Successfully  applied  and  carefully  maintained,  all  the 
operations  of  sale  and  resale  connected  with  his  product 
become  easier,  simpler  and  more  conclusive.  If  he  sells 
through  the  jobber,  the  jobber  recognizes  the  large  vol- 
ume of  sales  created  by  the  advertising  demand  and 
considers  these  goods  important  in  his  own  transactions. 

The  dealer,  from  long  experience,  knowing  that  there 
is  a  quick  and  active  demand  on  the  part  of  the  public, 
orders  liberally,  displays  the  stock  attractively,  and  un- 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  97 

consciously  is  influenced  by  the  advertising  to  add  his 
own  personality  to  the  goods.  The  traveling  salfstnan 
finds  the  dealer  in  this  receptive  mind,  secures  his  order 
more  easily,  for  goods  which  are  well  known  on  both 
sides  require  no  demonstration  or  argument,  and  the 
order  is  taken  more  quickly  and  becomes  in  time  an 
established  routine. 

The  salesman  in  the  store  finds  his  work  maxle  easier. 
The  customer  asks  for  the  article  by  name,  the  clerk 
immediately  finds  it  in  the  stock,  and  the  transaction  is 
reduced  to  its  lowest  terms.  The  public  finds  a  certain 
satisfaction  in  asking  for  an  article  by  name.  These 
operations  go  on  day  after  day  and  year  after  year,  and 
bring  about  a  close  personal  relation  between  the  manu- 
facturer and  the  user  of  his  product. 


§3 

There  is  a  personality,  a  responsibility,  about  adver- 
tised products  which  no  unadvertised  products  can  have, 
and  the  public  is  beginning  to  realize  the  safety  in  buy- 
ing products  thus  indorsed.  This  ideal  condition  is 
one  which  every  successful  advertiser  attains,  and  one 
which  every  prospective  advertiser  hopes  to  reach.  It  is 
the  work  of  the  advertising  agent  to  bring  this  about  for 
his  clients,  and  in  the  case  of  prospective  clients  to  use 
the  experience  of  other  advertisers  who  have  been  suc- 
cessful, to  get  the  clients'  confidence,  keep  up  their  cour- 
age and  prevent  them  from  stopping  before  the  work  can 
possibly  bear  fruit. 

Since  it  is  impossible  for  the  advertiser  to  judge  by 
immediate  results,  and  since  very  few  advertisers  are 
competent  to  pass  upon  the  real  selling  value  of  any 


98        THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

advertising  campaign  offered  to  them,  it  is  manifest  that 
the  advertising  agent  must  gain  the  confidence  of  his 
client  before  he  can  gain  anything  else.  Realizing  this, 
e\ery  effort  has  been  put  forth  by  advertising  agents 
to  deserve  this  confidence.  They  have  changed  them- 
selves from  mere  hucksters  in  space  to  professional  men, 
whose  advice,  based  upon  experience  and  study,  now  has 
the  same  weight  with  the  manufacturers  who  employ 
their  services  as  the  advice  of  an  expert  chemist,  an  ex- 
perienced electrician  or  a  specialist  lawyer. 

The  advertising  agent  has  become  a  professional  man 
by  studying  the  underlying  problems  of  advertising ;  by 
carefully  collating  the  experience  of  himself  and  all  other 
agents  and  the  experience  of  his  own  clients  and  all 
other  advertisers ;  by  comparing  the  results ;  by  employ- 
ing special  organizations  to  make  investigations;  by 
visiting  territories  in  which  goods  are  being  exploited 
and  watching  first-hand  the  selling  of  these  goods  over 
the  counters  of  retail  stores;  by  applying  various  tests 
to  the  advertising  as  it  appears;  by  carefully  tracing 
sales  effected  through  advertising,  and  comparing  their 
number  with  sales  effected  in  the  ordinary  way ;  by  hold- 
ing conferences  weekly,  monthly,  yearly,  with  sales  man- 
agers and  salesmen,  both  to  instruct  them  in  the  best 
method  of  applying  the  advertising  and  to  find  out  from 
them  conditions  that  exist  in  the  selling  field.  By  these 
means  the  advertising  agent  has  qualified  as  a  responsi- 
ble adviser  to  his  clients. 

The  advertiser,  feeling  this  new  force  in  advertising, 
gets  a  new  confidence,  is  more  wary  in  the  selection  of 
his  advertising  agent,  and  at  the  same  time  more  trust- 
ing when  he  has  selected  him,  and  thus  two  of  the  great 
departments  of  advertising — the  buyers  and  the  sellers — 
are  getting  together  on  a  basis  which  must  ultimately 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  99 

result  in  removing  much  of  the  uncertainty  that  exists 
both  in  the  state  of  mind  of  the  advertiser  and  in  the 
actual  results  obtained. 

§4 

In  thinking  of  the  manufacturer  as  an  advertiser,  we 
include  both  the  manufacturer  who,  by  the  use  of  ad- 
vertising over  a  long  term  of  years,  is  already  an  estab- 
lished user  of  advertising,  and  the  man  who  is  about  to 
make  his  initial  effort  to  try  to  increase  his  sales 
by  advertising. 

This  latter  type  of  manufacturer  also  presents  two 
separate  problems.  He  may  be  a  manufacturer  who, 
while  new  to  advertising,  is  old  to  the  business  of  selling 
his  goods,  and  already  has  established  a  fixed  trade 
through  the  ordinary  channels  of  salesman-promotion 
and  dealer — established  demand,  but  he  may  also  offer 
the  more  difficult  problem  of  a  manufacturer  who  is  be- 
ginning to  make  an  article  which  is  as  yet  unknown  and 
which  has  never  been  sold,  and  for  which  there  is  no 
proof  that  a  market  exists. 

This  article  may  be  a  new  invention,  or  it  may  be  a 
new  form  of  an  already  established  article.  That  is,  it 
may  be  a  new  kind  of  soap,  for  instance,  or  it  may  be  au 
entirely  new  cooking  ingredient,  such  as  a  vegetable  lard. 

The  advertiser  or  his  agent  must  immediately  con- 
sider whether  the  article  to  be  exploited  is  intended  to 
change  the  established  habits  of  the  people,  or  whether 
it  fits  in  with  present  habits.  For  soap  there  is  already 
a  fixed  demand.  Soap  is  a  staple.  A  new  soap  is  still 
a  soap.  If,  however,  the  advertiser  has  decided  that  a 
market  can  be  made  for  a  liquid  vegetable  lard  to  take 
the  place  of  the  solid  pork  lard  used  by  most  housewives 


100      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

for  cooking  and  frying,  he  must  first  determine  the 
amount  of  inertia  that  will  have  to  be  overcome.  An 
interesting  and  specific  instance  of  this  recently  hap- 
pened. A  manufacturer  decided  that  cotton-seed  oil  sup- 
plied all  the  cooking  qualities  of  lard,  but  being  a  vege- 
table product  was  free  from  many  of  the  disadvantages 
of  an  animal  lard.  He  realized  the  tremendous  inertia 
on  the  part  of  housewives,  born  of  years  of  experience 
in  cooking  with  lard.  While  it  is  true  that  the  house- 
wife will  take  lard  and  melt  it  in  the  form  of  a  liquid 
before  she  uses  it  for  frying  and  cooking,  it  was  a  ques- 
tion whether  if  lard,  or  any  substitute  for  lard,  were 
offered  her  in  liquid  form,  she  could  be  taught  by  adver- 
tising, or  any  other  method,  to  use  a  substitute,  even 
though  it  could  be  proved  that  it  was  better  for  that 
purpose  than  lard  in  any  form. 

A  preliminary  investigation  by  this  manufacturer 
proved  to  him  that  it  would  be  far  easier  to  crystallize  his 
vegetable  oil  into  a  product  closely  resembling  lard  in 
appearance,  and  then  sell  it  to  the  housewife  with  the 
idea  that  she  would  melt  it  back  again  into  liquid  form 
before  using  it,  just  as  she  and  generations  before  her 
had  done  with  lard,  than  it  would  be  to  put  it  in  the  more 
logical  and  natural  form  of  a  liquid  and  teach  her  to  use 
it  that  way.  Even  in  the  solid  form,  it  required  not 
only  a  large  amount  of  advertising,  but  also  a  great  deal 
of  intensive  work  on  the  part  of  very  competent  demon- 
strators before  any  great  number  of  housewives  could  be 
convinced  that  this  new  form  of  lard  was  better  than 
the  pork  lard  that  they  had  been  taught  to  use,  as  their 
mothers  before  them  had  been  taught. 

It  would  be  impossible  to  cite  all  of  the  instances  of 
this  kind  which  have  appeared  in  the  last  few  years, 
but  each  new  article  which  revolutionized  methods  of 


BUYERS  OF  ADVKKTISING  101 

housekeeping  required  very  careful  launching  and  very 
careful  study  of  its  possible  effect  upon  the  woman's 
mind,  and  where  such  investigation  was  not  made,  the 
results  were  frequently  disastrous. 


§5 

Take  the  case  of  a  certain  dried  milk.  A  manufac- 
turer found  that  by  a  certain  process  he  could  take  all 
the  moisture  out  of  milk,  reducing  it  to  a  dry  powder, 
without  in  any  way  altering  the  ingredients.  This  pow- 
der, by  the  simple  addition  of  water,  which  was  the  only 
ingredient  that  had  been  removed,  could  be  again  con- 
verted into  milk.  This  powder  could  be  sold  at  a  price 
which  made  it  cheaper  than  fresh  milk,  and  as  in  the 
powdered  form  it  kept  indefinitely,  it  had  other  advan- 
tages over  fresh  milk.  The  thing  seemed  obvious — there 
were  so  many  good  reasons  for  preferring  this  substitute. 
Yet,  though  backed  by  the  power  of  a  very  strong  ad- 
vertising campaign,  and  assisted  by  competent  demon- 
strators who  proved,  in  the  kitchens  of  the  women,  that 
this  milk  powder  would  make  milk  that  had  every  qual- 
ity of  the  fresh  milk  delivered  by  the  milkman  at  the 
kitchen  door,  it  was  impossible,  in  the  time  and  with  the 
amount  of  money  spent,  to  change  the  mental  attitude  of 
the  housewife. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  vacuum  cleaner,  a  radical  in- 
novation, and  one  that  did  away  instantly  with  a  great 
deal  of  the  drudgery  of  housekeeping,  was  tremendously 
successful — so  successful  that  it  produced  a  supply  which 
exceeded  the  demand.  Many  companies  were  hastily 
formed  to  manufacture  vacuum  cleaners,  and  manufac- 
turers making  other  forms  of  goods  added  vacuum  clean- 


102      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

ers  to  their  products,  with  the  result  that,  while  some  of 
these  companies  have  been  successful,  others  have  been 
wrecked,  because  the  market  has  not  expanded  fast 
enough  to  take  care  of  such  an  excessive  supply  of  a  new 
and  generally  expensive  article,  however  great  its  merits. 

These  instances  are  given  merely  to  show  how  many 
things  enter  into  successful  advertising,  and  how  wide  a 
field  of  investigation  must  be  covered  by  the  competent 
advertising  agent,  or  by  someone  employed  by  the  manu- 
facturer, before  a  successful  advertising  campaign  may 
be  started. 

The  exploitation  of  each  particular  article  has  its  own 
problem.  The  problems  are  as  numerous  as  the  advertis- 
ing accounts.  No  book  like  this  could  begin  to  catalog 
them,  to  say  nothing  of  describing  them.  But  such  ex- 
periences as  these,  which  are  familiar  to  all  advertising 
agents,  have  the  same  bearing  upon  his  work  that  de- 
cisions in  lawsuits  have  for  the  lawyer.  They  are  prece- 
dents. They  serve  either  as  models  or  warnings.  It  is 
the  business  of  the  advertising  agent  to  know  what  has 
been  done  and  what  has  failed,  and  to  infer  from  that 
what  he  can  do  in  a  given  instance.  It  is  not  enough 
that  he  should  know  that  a  certain  plan  has  failed.  He 
should  know  why  it  has  failed.  The  plan  may  have  been 
sound,  and  yet  failed  from  a  lack  of  attention  at  some 
one  vital  point.  The  experiences  of  advertisers  are  the 
talk  of  the  advertising  marketplace.  The  advertising 
managers  of  various  mediums  are  each  one  familiar  with 
many  successes  and  failures,  and  many  of  them  have 
shrewd  reasons  why  they  have  been  either  successes  or 
failures.  These  men  are  constantly  in  consultation  with 
advertising  agents  and  advertisers,  and  thus  an  exchange 
of  experiences  is  established.  It  is  important  that  the 
advertiser  or  his  representative,  either  advertising  man- 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  103 

ager  or  agent,  shall  keep  in  touch  with  all  these  sources 
of  information,  as  they  all  have  a  bearing  upon  his  suc- 
cess. 

Many  new  advertisers  shrink  from  putting  forward  the 
best  things  about  their  business  for  fear  the  competitors 
will  thus  learn  things  they  did  not  know,  but  it  is  safe 
to  say  that  every  advertiser  is  familiar  with  every  method 
of  every  competitor  before  the  public  is.  No  advertiser 
should  hold  back  any  good  selling  argument  that  he  has 
for  fear  that  it  will  convey  information  to  his  competi- 
tors. If  it  is  anything  that  will  sell  his  goods,  his  com- 
petitors already  know  it,  and  if  he  omits  that  thing  from 
his  advertising,  he  thereby  leaves  out  of  it  one  thing  that 
would  make  that  advertising  more  effective,  without  hav- 
ing gained  any  advantage. 

While  the  word  "manufacturer"  has  been  used  to 
describe  the  advertiser,  not  all  national  advertisers  are 
manufacturers. 

There  is  a  business  which  is  more  or  less  anomalous  in 
the  advertising  world,  but  which  is  yet  an  important 
factor  and  must  be  reckoned  with,  and  that  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  jobber  or  wholesaler. 


§6 

One  of  the  effects  of  national  advertising  has  been  to 
reduce  the  importance  of  the  jobber,  and  in  many  ca.ses 
to  eliminate  him  entirely.  As  soon  as  the  manufacturer 
finds  that  advertising  is  effective  in  selling  his  goods,  he 
chafes  at  the  lost  motion  which  comes  from  selling  his 
goods  through  the  jobber.  He  longs  for  the  direct  con- 
tact with  the  retailer,  which  makes  it  possible  for  him  to 
get  his  goods  sold  right  and  to  bring  to  bear  upon  the 


104      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

dealer  all  the  pressure  from  his  advertising  that  he  can. 
The  jobber  is  a  more  or  less  mechanical  unit,  who  buys 
goods  in  quantity  from  different  manufacturers  and  sells 
them  through  his  own  traveling  salesmen  as  they  are 
demanded  by  the  dealer.  He  very  seldom  puts  any  par- 
ticular pressure  behind  any  given  line  of  goods,  selling 
only  what  is  demanded,  and  selling  more  of  the  goods 
that  sell  easiest.  Of  course,  when  an  advertiser  has 
established  a  demand,  the  jobber  feels  this  demand  and 
governs  himself  accordingly,  but  he  does  not  help  to 
bring  this  about,  and  is  sometimes  very  reluctant  to  take 
the  fullest  advantage  of  it. 

Nevertheless  the  jobber  is  valuable  in  some  lines  and 
absolutely  indispensable  in  others.  There  are  a  great 
many  staples  upon  which  the  profit  is  so  small,  and  the 
quantity  bought  by  each  dealer  so  limited,  that  the  ex- 
pense of  having  traveling  salesmen  represent  such  a  line 
exclusively  is  too  great.  The  jobber,  however,  carrying 
a  great  many  allied  lines,  can  take  from  that  same  dealer 
enough  orders  to  pay  a  profit  over  the  salesmen's  ex- 
penses. 

Also,  the  question  of  extending  credit  to  the  dealer 
is  too  great  a  problem  for  many  manufacturers.  In  the 
grocery  business,  for  instance,  the  grocery  jobber  keeps 
a  tight  hand  upon  a  great  many  small  retailers  who  col- 
lectively represent  a  good-sized  business,  but  who  are 
individually  too  small  and  whose  credit  is  too  uncertain 
to  be  a  safe  field  for  the  manufacturer. 

So  the  manufacturer  is  deprived  of  any  direct  point 
of  contact  with  the  dealer  who  sells  his  goods.  In  many 
cases  missionaries  are  employed.  These  men  are  not 
actual  salesmen,  but  they  call  upon  the  retail  trade,  or 
upon  a  portion  of  it,  and  create  an  interest  in  the  em- 
ployer's goods.     They  call  attention  to  the  advertising 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  105 

and  show  the  retailer  how  he  can  take  advantage  of  it, 
and  offer  him  a  special  advertising  service  for  his  own 
use.  These  missionaries  sometimes  take  orders,  but  in 
order  not  to  antagonize  the  jobber,  they  do  not  turn 
these  orders  in  directly  to  the  factory  to  which  they 
eventually  go,  but  turn  them  in  to  the  dealer's  own 
jobber.  This,  however,  is  an  expensive  and  more  or  less 
sporadic  cultivation  of  the  trade. 

In  business  where  the  quantity  sold  to  any  given 
dealer  is  large  enough,  there  is  a  strong  tendency  to 
leave  out  the  jobber  and  sell  direct  to  the  retail  trade. 
Many  manufacturers  sell  to  the  large  retail  trade  direct 
and  leave  the  small  trade  to  the  jobber. 

The  jobber  is  an  irritating  factor  in  the  channels  of 
trade  for  another  reason.  He  frequently  poses  as  a 
manufacturer.  Having  a  large  force  of  salesmen  in 
direct  touch  with  the  retail  trade,  he  is  able  to  put 
especial  emphasis  upon  any  particular  article  if  he 
wishes  to  do  so.  ]\Iost  jobbers  have  articles  in  their  lines 
made  up  for  them  by  manufacturers,  with  some  special 
trade-mark  of  their  own,  and  these  goods  they  sell  as 
their  own,  and  assume  the  responsibility  of  the  manufac- 
turer without  being  really  responsible  for  the  production 
of  the  goods. 

These  jobbers  also  appear  as  national  advertisers,  ex- 
ploiting such  goods  with  their  trade-mark,  in  direct  com- 
petition with  the  manufacturer's  goods;  frequently  in 
competition  with  the  goods  of  the  very  manufacturer 
who  furnished  the  goods  for  their  private  brand. 

Of  goods  nationally  advertised  in  various  mediums,  a 
certain  percentage  are  not  advertised  by  the  manufac- 
turer but  by  a  jobber.  Naturally,  however  high-minded 
the  jobber  may  be,  and  however  stringent  the  specifica- 
tions which  he  gives  to  the  manufacturer  who  makes  the 


106      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

goods  for  his  private  brand,  he  cannot  occupy  the  same 
relation  to  these  goods  that  the  manufacturer  does.  Also, 
in  many  cases  these  goods  are  specifically  designed  to 
undersell  some  well-known  advertised  brand,  in  which 
case  they  not  only  sell  at  a  lower  price,  but  they  are 
distinctly  inferior.  There  is  an  element  of  dishonesty 
about  jobber's  private  brands,  and  the  same  derogatory 
quality  clings  to  the  goods  which  are  manufactured  and 
sold  under  a  dealer's  private  brand. 

Particularly  in  the  drug  business  there  are  many 
manufacturers  whose  sole  business  is  producing  goods 
upon  which  the  druggist  may  put  his  own  name  and 
trade-mark.  The  same  tooth  powder,  for  instance,  that 
is  sold  in  one  drug-store  under  one  trade-mark,  is  sold 
at  a  neighboring  drug-store  under  another  trade-mark. 
Sometimes,  but  not  often,  the  druggist  really  manufac- 
tures and  sells  a  product  of  his  own.  Many  druggists 
have  acquired  valuable  formula  from  their  experience 
in  putting  up  prescriptions  and  now  and  then  an  enter- 
prising one  will  put  out  a  formula  under  a  trade-mark 
and  name  of  his  own.  Even  in  this  case,  however,  he 
does  not  perform  the  actual  operation  of  manufacture. 
A  manufacturing  chemist  prepares  the  product  for  him, 
so  that  the  product  does  not  have  the  same  standing  nor 
the  same  careful  and  painstaking  responsibility  as  does 
a  proprietary  article  which  is  the  sole  source  of  income  to 
some  conscientious  manufacturer. 


§  7 

Retailers  are  also  large  buyers  of  advertising;  large 
individually  and  large  collectively.  Some  retailers — 
specifically  a  few  department  stores  in  the  larger  cities — 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  107 

spend  as  much  money  in  advertising  in  a  year  as  many 
national  advertisers.  The  department  stores  are  by  far 
the  largest  retail  advertisers,  and  are  followed  closely 
by  the  retail  clothiers. 

The  advertising  of  the  best  department  stores  repre- 
sents perhaps  the  most  eflficient  advertising  that  is  done. 
It  is  eflficient  because  in  no  other  field  of  advertising  are 
the  results  so  quickly  attainable  and  can  the  results  be 
so  surely  credited  to  the  advertising.  This  possibility  of 
so  quickly  adjusting  the  advertising  to  the  actual  ex- 
perience of  the  day  before  has  brought  about  a  degree  of 
efficiency  in  department  store  advertising  that  is  un- 
equaled  in  any  other  kind  of  advertising  anywhere. 
Nearly  all  department  store  advertising  is  intended  to 
bring  direct  returns.  That  is,  certain  goods  are  selected, 
described,  priced  and  oflfered  on  a  certain  date.  The 
public  comes  on  that  date  and  buys  the  goods,  and  the 
net  result  of  these  sales  is  directly  credited  to  the  exact 
cost  of  the  space  used  to  bring  about  the  result. 

This  is  not  true  of  all  the  advertising  of  all  depart- 
ment stores.  The  better  ones  are  always  creating  that 
indefinable  something  known  as  "goodwill."  A  certain 
amount  of  the  space  in  the  advertisement  is  not  charge- 
able against  any  particular  goods,  but  again.st  the  store 
as  a  whole.  This  space  is  used  to  exploit  the  policy  of 
the  store.  It  is  a  part  of  the  service  oflFered  by  the  store, 
just  as  the  delivery  department,  or  the  rest  room,  or 
other  utilities  which  the  store  furnishes,  which  bring 
no  direct  return,  but  which  create  a  pleasant  impression 
upon  the  mind  of  the  public.  A  notable  instance  of  this 
kind  of  advertising  is  the  signed  editorial  which  pre- 
cedes the  more  specific  advertising  each  day  in  the  an- 
nouncements of  John  Wanamaker. 

No  very  detailed  description  of  the  way  in  which  re- 


108      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

tail  advertising  is  done  can  be  given,  because  this  way 
varies  for  the  different  retail  lines,  and  also  as  the  tem- 
peraments of  the  men  producing  it  vary. 

Retail  advertising  offers  one  of  the  most  attractive 
fields  for  the  advertisement  worker  that  we  have.  The 
man  who  produces  retail  advertising  is  working  with  a 
live  audience,  from  which  results  are  quickly  obtainable, 
and  which  offers  possibilities  of  localization  which  no 
national  advertiser  can  begin  to  approach.  Two  in- 
stances may  serve  to  show  the  flexibility  of  this  kind 
of  advertising.  One  has  to  do  with  the  fact  that  in 
towns  of  average  size  in  this  country  there  is  a  personal 
acquaintance  between  the  retailer  and  his  customers. 

In  a  medium-sized  western  town  there  was  a  univer- 
sity, the  president  of  which  was  well  known  to  his  fellow- 
townsmen.  This  president  had  a  new  baby  which  was 
of  considerable  interest  to  his  fellow-citizens,  one  of 
whom  was  the  proprietor  of  a  retail  toy  shop.  The  presi- 
dent of  the  college  bought  a  humming  top  for  the  baby 
about  a  month  before  Christmas,  and  explained  casually 
in  conversation  that  nothing  he  had  given  the  baby  had 
such  a  soothing  effect  upon  it;  the  humming  top  could 
keep  it  quiet  for  hours.  The  young  man  writing  the  ad- 
vertising for  the  retail  toy  shop  worked  this  up  in  a 
more  or  less  humorous  advertisement,  in  which  the  presi- 
dent was  quoted  as  having  given  an  actual  testimonial 
for  the  humming  top.  The  result  was  an  unprecedented 
sale  of  humming  tops.  The  point  to  the  advertisement 
was  the  fact  that  all  the  people  concerned  in  it  were 
so  well  known  that  it  gave  a  quaint  twist  to  the  adver- 
tisement, which,  of  course,  could  not  serve  as  a  model 
for  any  other  advertisement  anywhere  else. 

On  one  of  the  busy  streets  of  Chicago  there  was  a 
men's  haberdashery  shop  kept  by  a  man  named  Tom 


BUYERS  OF  ADVERTISING  109 

Murray.  He  was  the  kind  of  man  who  would  never  be 
called  "Mr.  Alurray,"  and  he  u.sed  hi.s  personality  in  ad- 
vertising his  store  very  successfully.  This  advertising 
consisted  of  daily  announcements  written  with  a  thick, 
blue  pencil  upon  white  paper  and  stuck  upon  the  inside 
of  the  window-panes.  The  quaint  humor,  the  human 
touch,  the  individuality,  and  especially  the  lack  of  any 
form  of  dignity  and  style  in  these  advertisements,  soon 
brought  hosts  of  readers  from  the  passers-by  and  ulti- 
mately resulted  not  only  in  a  greatly  increased  business, 
but  also  in  national  fame  for  Tom  ^lurray. 

Here  again  is  an  instance  of  retail  advertising  which 
probably  could  not  serve  as  a  model  for  anyone  else.  It 
is  temperamental,  individual. 

There  are  a  hundred  thousand  retail  stores  in  this 
country  which  have  just  such  possibilities,  which  no 
book  on  advertising  could  suggest.  It  is  this  thing  that 
makes  retail  advertising  so  fascinating.  It  offers  possi- 
bilities that  the  more  staid  and  circumspect  announce- 
ments of  the  national  advertiser  cannot  utilize  or  copy. 


§8 

The  work  that  the  national  advertiser  is  doing  to  help 
the  retailer  advertise  better  should  not  be  overlooked. 
While  the  retailer  has  a  great  possibility  in  this  adver- 
tising, it  is  an  unrealized  possibility.  Only  a  few  take 
advantage  of  it,  and  these  few  have  been  inordinately 
successful.  The  average  retailer  is  not  a  very  progres- 
sive business  man.  Not  only  does  he  not  live  up  to  his 
advertising  possibilities,  but  he  doesn't  live  up  to  his 
storekeeping  possibilities. 

The  great  problem  in  national  advertising  to-day  is 


110      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

the  retailer.  What  shall  be  done  with  him?  He  keeps 
a  store ;  he  sells  goods  to  people  who  come  in  and  ask  for 
them,  but  he  so  seldom  is  able  to  do  anything  to  increase 
this  natural  process  and  make  his  business  better,  that 
he  is  a  very  poor  ally  to  the  national  advertiser  who 
sees  in  his  town  a  larger  market  and  endeavors  to  get  it. 

To  bring  the  dealer  out  of  this  lethargy,  to  make  him  a 
better  business  man  than  he  really  is,  the  national  ad- 
vertiser resorts  to  a  great  many  plans.  The  earliest 
and  simplest  was  to  furnish  him  with  advertising  to  use 
in  his  own  local  newspaper  over  his  own  name.  This 
has  been  carried  so  far  that  some  of  the  best  advertising 
appearing  in  local  newspapers  is  advertising  prepared 
for  a  national  advertiser  by  professional  advertising  men 
and  furnished  free  to  the  retailer.  It  usually  includes 
both  illustration  and  copy,  and  there  is  a  certain  smart 
snappiness  about  it  that  makes  it  as  distinguished  among 
the  ordinary  commercial  advertisements  in  the  local 
newspaper  as  an  English  soldier  at  a  husking  bee.  But 
it  is  proverbially  easier  to  lead  a  horse  to  water  than  it 
is  to  make  him  drink.  It  is  easy  to  get  up  good  adver- 
tising for  the  retailer,  but  it  is  hard  to  make  him  use  it. 

After  the  advertising  has  been  prepared,  various  meth- 
ods and  plans  are  adopted  to  get  the  dealer  interested 
and  enthusiastic.  The  most  direct  method  was  to  use 
the  traveling  salesmen,  but  here  again  was  an  obstacle. 
The  traveling  salesman  knew  nothing  about  advertising, 
and  was  very  diffident  about  discussing  it  with  his  cus- 
tomers ;  so  he  had  to  be  taught.  Advertising  schools  for 
salesmen  were  held  by  various  manufacturers,  under  the 
guidance  of  their  advertising  agents,  and  the  salesmen 
were  instructed  on  how  to  sell  the  advertising  along  with 
the  goods.  The  advertising  manager  also  built  up  a  sys- 
tem of  incitement,  encouragement,  cultivation,  criticism, 


Home  Pattern  Chart. — A  sales  and  advertising  chart  intended, 
first,  to  explain  the  advertising  plan  to  the  salesmen,  and, 
second,  to  make  clear  to  the  dealer  just  wliere  he  comes  in  on 
the  plan  made  to  sell  the  goods  he  carries. 


112      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

emulation  and  commendation  by  which  he  coaxed,  year 
after  year,  more  space  from  the  dealer  for  his  employer 's 
goods. 

To  the  original  outfit  of  newspaper  ads  have  been 
added  store  signs,  window  cards,  street-car  cards,  posters, 
envelope  stuffers,  catalogs,  booklets,  and  nearly  every 
form  of  printed  matter  that  the  dealer  can  use.  This 
literature,  conceived  in  a  broad  spirit,  frequently  con- 
tains as  much  advertising  of  the  dealer 's  general  business 
as  it  does  of  the  manufacturer's  goods.  Every  device  of 
advertising  art  has  been  used  to  make  this  matter  attrac- 
tive and  unusual.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  any  dealer  in 
this  country,  no  matter  what  line  he  is  selling,  can 
have  for  the  asking  an  outfit  of  advertising  matter  which 
it  would  cost  him  several  thousand  dollars  to  produce  for 
himself  alone. 

This  matter  is  frequently  put  up  in  attractive  port- 
folios, designed  to  fit  the  salesman's  sample  case,  and  in 
the  hands  of  an  intelligent  salesman,  it  is  frequently  one 
of  the  strongest  arguments  for  the  purchase  of  the  goods. 


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Crane's  Linen  Lawn 

Crane's  Linen  Lawn  is  probably  the  best  h  ritinj;  paper 
in  the  world.     It  will  \k  advertised  as  such. 

Two  new  features  of  this  advertising  should  be 
especially  noted  by  the  dealer  who  sells  Crane's  Linen 
Lawn,  or  whose  customers  demand  high-grade  w ril- 
ing paper. 

First,  the  ad\'ertising  itself  will  have  a  new  note. 
It  will  appeal  to  people  of  taste  and  refinement,  who 
can  appreciate  such  good  paper  as  Crane's.  The  illus- 
trations «il!  be  made  by  Frank  Snapp,  a  well-known 
artist,  who  stands  very  high,  and  who  is  frequently 
engaged  to  illustrate  the  publications  in  which  the 
advertising  will  appear. 

Second,  the  list  of  mediums  has  been  carefully 
chosen  to  reach  just  the  people  who  like  Crane's  Linen 
Lawn  and  other  Crane's  Writing  Papers  best.  This 
list  includes  practically  every  high-class  publication 
in  the  country.  The  names  of  the  publications  and 
their  circulations  are  found  elsewhere  in  this  [jortfolio. 

This  campaign  is  for  the  interest  of  every  dealer 
who  sells  Crane's  Lnien  Lawn  or  Crane's  Writing 
Papers,  and  e\er\  dealer  who  appreciates  the  ad\  an- 
tage  to  him  of  high-class  trade  —  the  trade  that 
appreciates  the  best  in  stationery,  calling  cards,  in- 
vitations and  other  things  of  that  kind—should  avail 
himself  of  the  advantage  of  tliis  advertising. 


As  it  is  tionc  in  lAirojx-     'i 


Thii  «l\cniictncnc  »  ihc  tine  uf  a  •ciict  ol  ten  adtcniic 
menu  to  appear  tSurinc  1914  in  tikc  list  ol 
shown  on  the  tollou'inf  P^se. 


The* magazines wil!  carr\:tnc  adv<-rt)sint:f>*  '  ■-:  C -  -^  '  :in^  Papers 
during  1914.  Each  one  o\  them  appeals  to  uunicn  o*  t-i-itc  und 
rchncmcnt  who  appreciate  and  can  afford  to  buy  such  stutiwnenr'  as 
Crane's  Writing  Papers.    Their  combined  circulation  is  2,670,0<X>. 


Cranz  % 

Ki  o  Finish 


.  .;Mi  ami  i.ilur  (ijnc  Papcn 
I  ,.(s,  1.. .,  ..ic'*  jrc  vni  (o  inqutrru  who  »nic  dircc:  lo 
tlic  Tn.inti!j*  ttirrr  ■l*»»ut  Cfanc'i  IVniiiis  Papen.  They 
gnr  uinpU»  «•(  C-niic's  Uncn  Lawn,  Crane's  Ktd  hiniah, 
CraiKt  P4picr  Lign^  Cfanc'»  Early  Oorgtaii.  Cranc'i 
Gr*y  l*»ii  am!  t»ihcr  Cimnc't  Writini;  P4pcr». 

When  we  urt  enough  iiu|iiirK«  fn>m  a  town  where 
Cranc't  Uncn  L«»n  »  mx  wtW,  wc  try  to  Kxurc  i  driller 
in  ihAt  t«nvn  wliu  will  supply  Ok  ilcnuiifi.  M'hcn  >-iiu 
rccritr  s  letter  fnnn  u»  uying  thAt  (.r,iii('f  IJnen  l^u-n 
hu  t>ren  imiuirr*)  l«>r  in  ytutt  iiVn  and  lannof  be  bought, 
(hat  tnetn*  ihjt  our  aJieiTi«ing  it  creating  ■  (ief^bml  (here 
whttb  aume  6n\ct  ilMMild  suppb. 


Use  the  window  card  or  street  car  card, 
linduws.     Tlie  choai>est  and  licst  advertisement  the  dealer 
ffK>d»  that   are   nrifinnaiK    n-lnrti-i. .!    lie   iiiit>.   tliimvnniK   o( 
ing  behind  hiv 


L^ 


The  best  of  the  new  ideas  in  stationery 
are  expressed  in 


odne 


tnendwxjn 


Writing  Papers 


mdow  card  to  be  used  in  conoection  with  window 
plays  of  CraiK-'.  Writing  Pap<T».  Tl.ere  >vil!  be  four 
::dtiw  cafds  marfe  during  the  year  from  the  bea  of  the 
iigns  drawn  by  Frank  Snapploftht  magazine sdvenijing. 


^    Crane's    i 
GREYLAWN  ( 


If  you  will  let  us  help,  we  can  make  your 
Highland  Linen  business  better  than  it  ever 
was  before.  Highland  Linen  is  already  the 
most  popular,  the  most  widely  sold  and  the 
most  highly  appreciated  of  any  writing  paper 
everraade.  This  isdueto  the  quality  of  the  paper 
and  the  advertising  that  has  been  done  for  it. 

During  1914  it  will  be  more  strongly  adver- 
tised than  it  ever  was.  Additional  inducements 
will  be  offered  to  people  to  try  it,  buy  it  and 
write  upon  it  and  make  it  their  regular  paper. 

The  dealer  who  appreciates  what  this  ad- 
vertising will  do  for  him  and  puts  himself  in 
line  to  benefit  by  it  by  carrying  Highland 
Linen  in  stock,  will  soon  find  that  people  who 
come  to  buy  Highland  Linen  because  it  is 
advertised  will  buy  other  things  that  he  sells, 
and  the  result  will  be  a  busier  store  and  a 
better  business  in  all  lines  by  taking ad\antage 
of  the  Highland  Linen  advertising. 


Curl  papers  -and 
writing  papers 

Wt««  ».»,IJ  ,.„  ilunL  ...  .n  nlicmiM 
nice  Kill  xlio  lh.«ith(lcv«l)  cainr  Al»ix 
lu  bfrakfiiM  h-iiK  lirr  )uir  in  I'url  (upmr 

\oa  wtiuUlii'l  ilu  i(.  hul  do  yuii  n*  a<lni 
wiilc  a  lc<lcr  upon  a  luMil)  wktlnl.  in<|>- 
proprutc  pic<c  o(  wriimi:  PJpr'  hrtainc 
rou  have  n<i  « tiling  paper  in  ihr  l«"«c 
thai  dot»  y-iu  crrJil?  V<ju  think  rout 
fncn<)»<»TtU«4  »lui  i.  tcall)-  a  birach  o( 
joud  lauc  ai«l  proptirty      Hul  d.)  thefr 


m 


IGHUND 

LINEN 


lint  Wkin«o  Pamk 


oa  yovr  wtHinit  tablr.  miirk  it  mpOMiblc  lor 
VIM  m  to  •'««i^  OA  wtH.nc  i^rrr 

lurkttnrtf  in  rrgird  i,.  t^rrnpoodri 


'  f  ru(r  Mcaretcn- 
Art  Tfov  rtjuatty 


EATON.    CRANE    &    PIKE    CO. 


<ffi» 


FiiM  al  a  tctin  of  HigUand  Linen 
adrtrmemrniv  Read  ihi<  ad  cair- 
Jullr-  It  lua  »  no>  iluiugdt.  Jhcn 
iriU  hr  ninr  iKhrra  liLc  it.  Tlir;  will 
appear  in  the  i;rcaic*l  wotncn'a 
papcn  in  the  world .  Tht  lift  ia 
Wiown  on  the  adjoinins  p>4Cr.      ', 

The  object  ol  thu  advrfliting  It 
to  teach  orry  wrinun  to  uae  better 
papct  i)Mn  alie  d«a.  The  beget 
paim  ihr  iiacs  the  hkht  ihc  k  ill  par 
(ot  il;  the  more  you  will  arllguid 
the  bii£2cr  >uur  pru«il. 

You  can  hate  the  adraniaKT  ol 
dliaadtefliuntf.  Iti«f'>r)uu.  Make 
jrour  buiinns  beitct.  Ri»d  ihe  ad- 
vcttiiing:  ect  into  the  apini  ul  it  a»d 
run  rout  note  to  lake  adtanufe 
.rf  it.  •       . 


Hicsc  pubiioiiiong,  rcati  b>  «onicn  ^nd  itoui^  into  7,000,OtX)  homes,  carr>- 
ihe  advertising  oi  Highland  Ltncn  Tlsis  mraiis  that  into  nearly  ocry  home 
w.Jrth  while  in  your  town  ihc  mcsw(;c  for  Highland  Linen— for  self-respecting 
writing  paper — is  Iwing  earned. 


r 

HIGHLAND 

11       LINEN 

/ 

fcCTJ 

To  e*crT  vMKiun  who  an«wcn  one  lA  oor  «f*«nrtCTncni»                                          t^^H 
wc  «nH  tScw  wmp!M  o(  *-riung  ptpcr.     I)  there  i«  ro                                         -|^^^l 
ilealci    in   Highland  Ijnen  in  the  fown  imtn  which  the                                          ^J^^H 
iftqiiir)-  comc«,  wr  lakc  u  up  immcdUicly  with  •onic  dcakcr                                         '^^^^1 
(Acre  to  ircure  rcpretenuhun.                                                                                      ^^^^^1 

In  atiduion  to  the  ad^ertrsing  shown  on  the  previous  pa^es.  v.%.  h  uc  aii.>thcr  pbn  lu  increa&e  the  sale 
»f  Highianrf  Linen  T4c  Scmi-MomiiU  Maga/inc  is  ouh!i«hcd  ns  a  sispjilemcnt  lo  newspapers  m 
large  dilc5  having  a  t(nnbfjied  tirLulation  ol  3,WtO.UOO.  .\s  a  special  inducement  to  get  women 
jito- write  f<»r  s^imp'es  A)  (hj^hJam!  Linen.  »r  a-^t  i>HennR  to  cath  one  a  Iwaiitifut  picture  ready  for 
'framing.  These  pit  tsirei.  are  bv  wci!  kn.mn  artista.  ^cr^  pi^pular  wjth '.M>mcn,  »nch  35  Harrison  Hshcr, 
C.  D.  Gibson.  Hoaard  (  hamikr  Citn>u  Ami  others  B>  the  nuniberpi  women  uhn  wrife  (or  these 
pictures  (and  we  etpett  tht  numt»er  w  ils  run  up  into  the  irns  of  thouMiiJ&l  wc  will  kno*  the  ii>tcre« 
that  HiKhland  i-Jticn  has  created  If  >ou  do  not  take  <idvantagr  of  it,  >ou  wilt  be  losinu  trade,  to 
create  which  we  ha^e  gone  t<>  great  expense,  and  whu  r.  tt  wnuM  pj%  you  to  haridle.  One  ot  the  picitires 
to  be  E'^'cn  away  to  women  who  answer  tht  <)dvertiHruitnt  in  th.s  publication  is  thown  on  this  page. 


A  special  advertising  cam- 
paign is  to  be  conducted 
in  Good  Housekeeping. 

If  you  are  one  of  the  stores  that  has  de- 
clared for  advertised  goods  under  the 
Good  Storekeeping  plan  of  Good 
Housekeeping,  you  will  know  what  this 
means.  If  not,  we  advise  you  to  write 
to  Good  Housekeeping  for  a  copy  of 
Good  Storekeeping,  and  read  it  care- 
fully. A  copy  is  shown  here.  The  stores 
that  have  joined  Goo<l  Housekeeping's 
movement  to  sell  advertised  goods  of 
the  best  grade,  and  take  advantage  of 
the  advertising  helps,  have  made 
wonderful  records.  Read  about  them 
in  Good  Housekeeping's  magazine. 


L 


Let  us  show  you  a  box  of 


containing  these  Tokens 


Hi^ifaind  LiiieB  Aatxivenary  Toknu.— Wc  bive  uiopte4  i  pUn  for  popubriung  Highland  Lmen, which 
will  probably  make  the  biggest  hit  of  any  adTcnbing  plao  that  oaa  ever  bc^B  u*ed  in  the  lUtioDcry  buimeif. 
Thii  plaa  coothtt  of  what  arc  known  ai  Highland  Lmtn  Token*,  little  anntveraary  tump*  which  writr ri  oi 
ietten  will  stick  on  the  teeter  or  on  the  envelope,  in  the  umc  way  that  the  Red  Crow  iiamp*  are  uard  about 
Chmtmat  time.  Each  one  of  theae  atampi  will  repreient  a  di0creot  anaivcraary  or  rrettins.  Nine  itanip* 
will  be  packed  in  a  box  of  Highland  Linen,  aad  ewtrjonc  who  purchMci  a  box  of  Highland  Linen  will  get 
tbeac  ttampc  free.  Thcj  will  be  u  popular  ti  the  wuveoir  poaul  cardi,  but  are  much  more  aniitic  and  will 
appeal  to  women  of  dl  taatea  and  gradei. 

We  afaow  in  the  fwrtfolio  a  aheet  of  thcac  ttafflpa,  tad  we  alao  ibow  a  window  diapby  card,  wiib  loggcitioni 
on  how  to  ukc  the  rrcateil  poiiible  advantage  oillitistroaEaclUng  plan.  You  thoald  have  in  your  windows, 
bMides  a  display  of  Highland  Uocn  in  all  iti  uuemtsat  ftP'*  taactAon  xad  tizca,  the  potter  showing  the 
Highland  Linen  Tokens,  and  alto  sample  Ietten  wHtten  and  uldrcMcd,  with  the  stamps  affixed  to  them,  to 
show  "your  customers  juit  what  they  me*n. 

If  you  will  dress  a  window  in  accordance  with  the  •ugestion  oa  dw  atst  p»£«,  you  will  feel  immediate 
rcttites  irom  it  and  feel  the  efiect  upon  your  salca  of  HtghUnd  Ltaco. 


liilfhliind  IJncn  Window   Display* 

\  nir  « ii»ii.»  It  OIK-  .i|  .hr  hrti  a>l\chi<init  il>nluin«  VJo  lurr.     ■>....  -  

ireojc  joui  Klin  KTKiilj  i(  y"ii  Kctp  t<«ir  uiniliw*  ditofil  »iili  .i!t-«iiw 
KxKnii  v<«jr>cl>i».  Hen-  i>  vxw  imirnji  ii<  wind-w  <l>s>'"<> miC  HiatiU>Kl 
I  iticn.  A  lilxtal  Mul  «r!l  «tl;lll|^ll  ritiibil  t.t  iht  pjprt  i"!!:!!.  »!..,>.  iiu  t!«- 
loluf*.  lixCT.  .lltfctOTI  tn^vlopc  H«iH  »iiJ  i-ol>ml  Si>nlci«,  i*»iulil  ht  'ru!v- 
uuli  ihik  nuirrial  ih  the  t>jckitnniiKl. 


that  goci  out  of  your  ! 
an  impreuioD  to  the  public  mind 
u  to  your  standing  at  a  tiatiooer. 
If  everyone  bought  high  priced 
ptpers  you  wouldn't  worry  about 
the  reiult.  But  unfoitunatety 
everyone  isn't  wealthy  and  Boaie 
pcofit  have  to  buy  moderate  priced 

That  fact  makes  it  very  Dec«- 
sary  to  include  in  your  mocIl  a 
quality  paper  at  a  moderate  price. 
Such  a  paper  it 


LIMKN 

You  can  be  sure  that  every  box  of 
this  handsome  fabric  finished  paper 
will  be  3  credit  to  you  and  to  your 
store.  Let  your  patrons  know  all 
about  it,  by  showing  it  in  your 
wtodows,  and  by  taking  advantage 
of  the  efTective  advertiGementi 
which  we  have  prepared  for  your 
use  in  your  newspapers.  Write  u* 
to-day  about  them. 

Efltod,  CrErae  &  Vtke  Co. 


EVERY 
WRITING  PAPER 

that  goes  out  of  your  store  carries 
an  impression  to  the  public  mind  as 
to  your  standing  as  a  stationer.  If 
everyone  bou^t  high  priced  papers 
/ou  wouldn't  worry  about  the 
result.  But  unfortunately  everjonc 
iso't  wealthy  and  some  people  have 
to  bay  raodwate  priced  papers. 

That  fact  makes  it  very  necessary 
to  include  in  your  stock  a  quality 
paper  at  a  moderate  price.    Such  a 

HlGHUM!) 

11      LINEN 

You  can  be  sure  that  e\er)"  box  of 
this  handsome  fabric  finished  paper 
will  be  a  credit  to  you  and  to  your 
store.  Let  your  palrwis  know  all 
about  it,  by  showing  it  in  your  win- 
dows and  by  taking,  advantage  <^ 
the  effective  advertisements  which 
we  have  prepared  for  your  use  in 
r    newspapers.     Write  us  today 


Trade  Paper  Ads 

We  will  use  regular  advertising  in  all  the  trade  papers  going  to  the  8talionerj' 
trade.  It  is  not  necessary  to  comment  upon  this  as  you  will  undoubtedly  sec 
the  advertising  in  your  own  trade. 


Making 


the  Habit 


"^*o.v 


C04 


»**, 


"<t« 


1*'*  i'-?'**  < 


r»»Tl''"« 


ta»»„ 


1'  i7£."« , 


7"r*j' 


«ic«7 


..Tffii 


!»«nt,. 


P-.:^*'..?.,'?'^, 


•.«i«v;/-/?^-. 


-5^ 


Personal  letter  from  Mr.  Eaton,  asking  for  the  united  co-operation 
of  the  stationery  trade  in  the  country  to  malce  1914  the  best  year  for 
tbc  stationery  business  in  its  history. 


K\ery  dealer  who  uses  street  car  space  will  appreciate  a  c 
Highland  Linen,  tying  up  his  own  store  with  our  great  iiatiol 

will  be  good  for  a  st 


WTWrite  it  on 

LINS 

\Paperqftfiehousefiotd 


Irane  &Pike  Companv 


rd  with  his  own  name  and  address  upon  it  to  advertise 
|1  campai^.  If  you  do  not  use  street  car  space,  this  card 
re  or  uinH-.u.  .-^rd. 


Every  dealer  should  do  some  advertising. 
Advertising  is  the  life  of  business.  No  dealer  is 
too  small  to  advertise  in  some  way.  Star  List 
ads  are  supplied  to  Star  List  dealers  who  use 
newspaper  space  in  their  own  towns.  They 
furnish  you  with  design  and  copy  ready  to  run 
in  your  own  newspaper  space.  They  have  many 
other  uses.  You  can  print  them  upon  blotters 
or  make  folders  of  them  and  mail  them.  The 
mail)  thing  is  to  advertise.  Advertise  all  you  can. 


Nothing;  will  so  quickly  make  business  better  as 
good  advertising.  We  furnish  the  copy  and  de- 
signs with  suggestions  on  how  to  use  them. 


HH 

jgg^ygf 

Eaton.  Crane  &  Pike  Co. 

MEMBER    OF 

^Ti^—FfHHl^' 

• 

^  /ilN^^SiA  ^ 

^H 

.  1  . 

II  O^jinounceinenl:^ 


olie  t^\icc  ^caDcivS  of  llie ''lOoilc*  cb.scciaUon 


cannon  iicemenl^ 


T>c  foll"rfhtg  onifiTrf.i.  by  hn-ltaHrm,  drr 


Plan  for  Distribution 
of  Booklets 

Any  dealer  may  have  for  diuribution,  once  in 
»ix  monilis,  booklets  brarini;  the  dealer*!  imprint, 
in  the  followinK  apportionments: 


K<Ta  Untn  Hifhluxl  Linen 

AniMcl  Linen 

100  booki  wNh    SO  lb.  or    SO  pipctcnn 
200  ••     100    "     •■  100 

SOO  •■•     2S0    ••     "250 

IM       ••         ••    SOO   ••     "SOO 
In  cue  boih  poumb  and  piprtrrict  arc  or- 
dered, cuaiomer  canncK  KavT  double  quanciry. 

Papier  Lignc     Linen  l^wn 

Kid  Finish          Bcrkahire  Linen  Fabric 

Crer  La»-n         Early  Georgian 

100  booklctt  onih  100  papeteriei  or  5  rcaim 
200       ••  "200         "         "  10     " 

300       "  "300         "  •  15     " 

400       "  "100  "20     " 

SCO       "  "500         "         "2S     " 


Dealers  may  have  the  entire  assortment  or  any 
portion  of  an  assortment  at  one  time  providing 
orders  are  placed  for  each  line  in  quantities 
mentioned.  Booklets  must  be  asked  for  on  orders 
covering  necessary  stock  and  will  be  seiU  out 
only  by  rtqtust. 


\ 


Fanicrn  slides  by  which  ilitr  local  mtrchaiits  can  turn  '.o 

•JicmsflvcsthcpatfOiU}iccrejKdhy[h<;n;uioriiiI.-idvci-iising. 


CIIAPTKR    V 

THE    NECESSARY    STEPS    FOR    MARKETING 
A    NEW    PRODUCT 


§1 

Perhaps  nothing  will  give  so  clear  an  idea  of  all  the 
various  thinj^s  that  must  be  done  before  a  new  product 
or,  for  that  matter,  an  old  one,  can  be  successfully 
launched  by  means  of  an  advert isLii}?  campaign  as  to 
take  up  in  detail  some  of  the  steps  that  are  necessary. 
There  is  not  much  difference  as  far  as  most  of  the  steps 
are  concerned  between  a  new  product  and  an  old  one, 
except  that  if  the  old  one  is  to  be  a  success,  all  of  the 
steps  must  have  been  taken  some  time.  Most  of  thein 
may  have  been  taken  before  the  advertiser  decides  upon 
general  advertising.  Tlis  product  will  be  manufactured 
and  sold.  It  will  have  a  name  and  a  trade-mark,  and 
will  be  wrapped  or  put  up  in  some  form  so  as  to  be 
easily  recognized  and  fully  protected. 

Many  advertisers  bring  their  goods  to  the  advertising 
market  with  poorly  selet-ted  trade-marks,  eye-straining 
wrappers  and  other  of  those  necessary  accompaniments 
of  good  {ulvertising  made  a  hiudi-ance  rather  than  an 
aid,  so  that  considerable  adjustment  is  required.  Sta- 
ples, such  as  flour,  salt,  shoes,  may  have  attained  a  large 
sale  as  the  years  have  gone  by  without  being  thereby 
ready  for  immediate  advertising. 

151 


152      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§2 

Shoes,  for  instance,  manufactured  and  sold  through 
the  usual  channels  of  trade,  require  considerable  prelimi- 
nary treatment.  While  the  process  appears  simple  and 
is  simple  in  case  of  a  new  shoe  business,  it  is  revolu- 
tionary when  applied  to  an  established  one.  Not  only 
must  a  mark  be  decided  upon  far  enough  in  advance  of 
the  advertising,  so  that  shoes  bearing  the  name  and 
trade-mark  shall  be  on  sale  in  retail  stores,  but  there 
is  also  required  thorough  missionary  work  to  change  the 
attitude  of  the  shoe  dealer  prejudiced  against  trade- 
marked  and  advertised  shoes.  This  prejudice  is  justified 
in  two  ways. 

Selling  shoes  is  the  chief  business  of  a  shoe  dealer, 
while  selling  shaving  soap  is  not  the  chief  business  of  a 
druggist.  A  druggist  will  stand  for  a  number  of  trade- 
marked  articles,  because  no  one  of  them  will  make  or 
break  him.  The  shoe  dealer  feels  that  his  whole  busi- 
ness depends  on  shoes,  and  is  jealous  of  the  origin  of 
those  shoes.  He  leels  that  to  put  his  name  and  local 
reputation  behind  a  trade-marked  shoe  ties  him  up  to  a 
manufacturer  who  may  or  may  not  treat  him  right. 
There  is  a  feeling  among  shoe  dealers  that  not  all  manu- 
facturers have  treated  them  right  in  the  past.  They 
point  to  the  chains  of  shoe  stores  which  are  bidding  for 
the  same  retail  business  which  is  their  livelihood.  The 
manufacturer  who  runs  these  stores  replies  that  the  hos- 
tile attitude  of  the  dealer  drove  him  to  it.  He  insists  that 
he  could  not  get  an  outlet  except  by  running  his  own 
stores. 

This  discussion  has  no  place  here,  but  shoes  have  been 
selected  to  illustrate  the  fact  that  very  few  articles, 
whether  they  have   been  manufactured   and   sold   for 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        15?} 

years,  or  whother  tlicy  are  Lfpiiminj;  to  bo  iiiariufactiirctl 
simultaiu'oiisly  witli  the  advertising,  are  really  prepared 
for  national  advertising. 

Nor  must  it  be  forgotten  that  a  hirge  part  of  tliis 
preparation  consists  of  changing  mental  attitudes  of 
jobber,  salesman,  dealers  and  clerks. 

It  is  but  natural  for  the  manufactiirer  who  has  brought 
himself  to  the  point  of  advertising  to  chafe  under  a 
delay  of  months  or  years.  Usually  a  combination  of 
intolerable  conditions  in  his  market  drives  him  to  adver- 
tising, so  that  when  the  time  comes  the  situation  is 
critical.  Nevertheless  he  may  lose  all  of  his  advertis- 
ing money  by  being  too  precipitate. 


§3 

To  go  back,  then,  to  the  manufacturer  who  is  about 
to  use  the  long  arm  of  advertising  to  reach  after  new 
sales  and  new  markets,  the  first  question  to  be  decided  is: 
"What  markets  and  where?" 

This  is  a  big  country  whose  people  live  under  more 
different  conditions  of  government,  climate,  religious  be- 
lief, local  customs  and  class  distinctions  than  any  other 
country  in  the  world.  There  are  eleven  states  where  tlie 
sale  of  liquor  is  illegal.  There  are  many  more  states 
where  the  sale  of  cigarettes  is  illegal.  There  is  one  state 
where  plurality  of  wives  still  exists.  In  a  dozen  .states 
women  vote.  In  the  large  cities  concentrated  wealth  has 
produced  social  distinctions  equaled  only  in  a  limited 
monarchy.  In  smaller  towns  a  condition  of  democracy 
still  prevails. 

When  a  manufacturer  seriously  considers  as  custom- 
ers a  hundred  million  people  living  so  many  different 


154.      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

kinds  of  lives,  it  is  certainly  wise  to  give  a  great  deal 
of  thought  to  the  kind  of  goods  he  should  make,  the 
name  by  which  he  should  call  them,  the  package  in  which 
he  should  wrap  them,  the  price  at  which  they  should  be 
sold,  and  the  sort  of  advertising  through  which  he  should 
appeal,  before  he  spends  money  upon  this  form  of  selling 
goods. 

Looking  at  this  country  merely  from  the  point  of  view 
of  size  or  extent,  there  arises  a  very  serious  problem — 
distribution  complicated  by  varying  freight  rates.  If 
the  factory  is  located  in  the  East,  every  mile  added  to 
the  haulage  of  the  goods  must  be  paid  by  someone — by 
the  manufacturer,  by  the  dealer  or  by  the  consumer. 
An  entirely  different  scale  of  prices  prevails  on  the 
Pacific  Coast  from  what  obtains  on  the  Atlantic  Coast. 
From  five  to  fifteen  cents  is  added  to  the  price  of  well- 
known  staples,  such  as  foods,  drinks,  bottled  waters, 
writing  papers  and  other  articles  of  daily  barter  and 
sale.  This  is  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  these  western 
states  are  far  from  the  market  and  goods  must  be  sold 
upon  a  more  liberal  basis.  In  putting  a  price  upon  an 
advertised  article  this  must  be  considered.  Equalizing 
of  the  price  is  one  of  the  great  problems  of  national 
advertising  which  recognizes  that  no  specific  item  of  a  de- 
tailed description  is  so  illuminating  as  the  price.  This, 
however,  is  a  little  beside  the  question  of  the  existence 
of  the  market. 

Two  questions  must  first  be  asked,  and  the  answering 
of  them  sometimes  takes  weeks  and  months  of  investiga- 
tion. 

"Will  the  people  buy  such  an  article?"  and  ''Have 
they  the  money  to  pay  for  it?" 

South  of  ]\lason  and  Dixon's  Line  are  large  tracts  of 
country  inhabited  by  people  too  poor  to  pay  for  any- 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        155 

thing  except  the  necessities  of  life.  Even  then,  these 
people  have  money  only  once  a  year;  namely,  when  the 
cotton  crop  is  harvest eil.  The  local  ilealer  carries  them 
on  his  hooks  until  the  peritMl  for  collecting  accounts 
comes,  and  the  nuinufacturcr  must  work  in  sympathy 
with  these  conditions. 

Makers  of  Hour  find  that  a  patent  flour  of  exceeding 
whiteness  is  demanded  in  some  districts,  while  whole 
wheat  flour  is  more  popular  in  others;  while  makers  of 
soap  find  that  a  difference  in  water  nuikes  a  difTcrenco 
in  soap  requirements.  Canners  of  heans  learn  that  tlie 
l)ean  ideal  in  iioston  is  not  the  bean  ideal  in  (Jalveston. 

There  was  a  time  when  the  nuinufacturcr  spent  his 
money  in  liberal  advertising  with  the  idea  of  crushing 
down  local  prejudice  as  with  a  steam  roller.  Sometimes 
this  worked,  but  it  was  expensive.  To-day  advertising 
costs  moi'e  and  accomplishes  less  than  it  did  in  the  past, 
and  instead  of  riding  rough-shod  over  an  obstacle, 
the  nmnufacturcr  studies  it  with  the  iilea  of  getting 
around  it,  either  by  removing  the  prejudice  or  catering 
to  it. 

For  nearly  all  .staples  a  nmrket  exists.  Shoes,  cloth- 
ing, hats,  collars,  shirts,  foods  and  building  material  are 
all  demanded  and  demanded  pretty  generally  all  over 
the  country. 

In  wearing  apparel  the  question  of  style  is  obtrusive. 
The  maker  of  anything  afTected  by  the  whims  of  fashion 
must  first  ask  himself,  "AVhat  is  style  as  applied  to  a 
large  market?"  and  then  give  to  these  people  style  from 
their  point  of  view.  Tiiis  does  not  always  mean  the 
exclusive  style  of  the  favored  few  with  means  of  access 
to  real  siyle  authorities,  but  it  does  mean  some  reflection 
of  thesd  style  ideas. 

Advertising  has  brought  people  in  this  country  close 


156      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

together,  so  that  in  both  men's  and  women's  garments 
more  real  style  is  offered  to-day  than  even  a  few  years 
ago.  Advertising  has  been  an  educating  factor  in  this 
as  in  other  things. 

The  manufacturer  of  a  certain  collar  by  use  of  pic- 
tures of  correctly  dressed  young  men  has  had  a  won- 
derful influence  upon  the  style  taste  of  the  country. 
Half  a  million  dollars  a  year  spent  with  the  sole  idea  of 
teaching  young  men  good  taste  in  dress,  simply  to  en- 
hance the  setting  of  a  collar,  has  not  been  without  effect. 
Not  only  is  that  collar  safely  entrenched  as  an  essential 
part  of  the  well-dressed  man's  attire,  but  the  makers  of 
hats,  ties,  clothing  and  shoes  have  all  benefited  thereby. 


§4 

The  methods  of  making  such  investigations  are  as 
varied  as  their  subjects.  Reports  of  salesmen  make  a 
good  starting-point.  They  reflect  the  dealer  attitude, 
which  in  turn  reflects  the  consumer  attitude.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten,  however,  that  both  salesman  and  dealer 
are  cogs  in  an  old-established  machine.  They  run  in  cer- 
tain grooves  and  are  not  so  valuable  in  reflecting  new 
conditions  and  new  attitudes. 

Better  still  is  the  work  of  the  real  investigator :  the 
man  who  collects  and  classifies  facts  as  automatically 
as  an  adding  machine.  Such  a  man  should  be  without 
bias.  He  reports  what  exists  and  deductions  from  these 
facts  are  made  in  accordance  with  the  law  of  averages. 

The  thorough  and  searching  work  done  by  the  Investi- 
gating Bureau  of  the  Curtis  Publishing  Company  is 
dwelt  upon  in  a  previous  chapter.  It  is  a  well-considered 
attempt  to  carry  out  on  a  large  scale  and  for  all  lines 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        157 

of  business,  what  each  inanufaetunT  must  uu(h'rtake 
for  himself  alonp  some  specific  line. 

p]xperiencc(l  shoppers  sent  to  different  cities  to  feel 
the  pulse  of  the  stores  is  the  best  method  of  {getting  a 
glimpse  of  the  face  that  the  store  presents  to  the  public. 

The  value  of  an  outside  impression  to  the  manufac- 
turer of  the  goods  cannot  be  overestimated.  The  maker 
of  the  goods  generally  looks  at  them  from  the  wrong 
angle,  and  all  in  his  employ  are  affected  by  his  mental 
obliquity.  A  man  with  a  mind  trained  for  getting  at 
the  facts — the  real,  basic,  fundamental,  es.sential  facts — 
going  through  a  plant,  studying  the  goods  from  every 
angle,  will  develop  selling  points  overlooked  by  the 
manufacturer  and  his  assistants. 

All  these  lines  and  many  others  growing  out  of  pe- 
culiar conditions  are  followed,  results  tabulated  and  the 
whole  considered  from  the  point  of  view,  first,  of  deter- 
mining the  market,  and  second,  of  preparing  the  adver- 
tising that  will  influence  that  market. 

The  investigation  of  the  attitude  of  the  trade  toward 
the  goods  is  a  part  of  this  work,  and  is  the  second  step 
necessary  before  a  line  of  advertising  is  written  and 
placed. 

This  has  been  touched  upon  earlier  in  this  chapter, 
and  all  these  things  lead  up  to  the  elimination  of  ob- 
stacles and  the  success  of  the  advertising. 

An  obstacle  has  been  foreshadowed  in  the  hostility 
of  shoe  dealers  toward  advertised  shoes.  It  may  be 
said  that  in  a  general  way  all  retailers  are  hostile  to 
advertised  goods.  This  hostility  has  been  worn  down 
by  the  actual  experience  of  dealers  who  find  their  ex- 
pense of  doing  business  reduced,  because  advertised 
goods  are  bought  and  sold  with  less  friction,  less  wear 
and.  tear  on  the  sales  force,  less  expense  and  less  time 


158      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

consumed  and  greater  ultimate  satisfaction  of  the  pur- 
chaser. 

§  5 

Price,  or  rather  the  profit  that  a  fixed  price  gives, 
is  another  obstacle.  Almost  the  only  way  that  a  manu- 
facturer who  does  not  advertise  can  compete  with  a 
similar  article  advertised  is  by  making  a  cheaper  article 
and  selling  it  at  a  price  which  offers  a  greater  margin 
of  profit  to  the  dealer.  The  dealer,  being  short-sighted 
but  human,  will  frequently  lend  influence  to  an  ar- 
ticle that  yields  greater  profit,  overlooking  the  draw- 
backs and  disadvantages  which  such  sales  are  bound  to 
produce. 

The  fixing  of  a  price  which  will  prevail  over  the  entire 
United  States  is  a  greater  obstacle.  There  are  several 
ways  of  meeting  this.  One  is  to  have  a  variable  price. 
Advertisements  frequently  mention  that  a  certain  article 
is  sold  in  the  stores  at  such  and  such  a  price,  except  on 
the  Pacific  Coast.  Sometimes  a  higher  price  is  men- 
tioned for  these  far  western  states.  Sometimes  the  manu- 
facturer prepays  all  freight.  Large  businesses  with  great 
distribution  establish  their  own  warehouses  or  jobbing 
centers.  This  is  decidedly  the  best  solution  if  the  busi- 
ness is  big  enough  to  justify  it,  but  naturally  it  requires 
a  large  volume  to  support  such  an  expensive  plant.  If 
an  Eastern  manufacturer  has  a  warehouse  in  Denver 
or  San  Francisco,  he  can  ship  in  carload  lots,  thus  tak- 
ing advantage  of  the  lowest  possible  freight  rate  and 
prepaying  this  freight  himself.  Then  retailers  Avithin 
a  short  radius  of  this  center  buy  under  the  same  trade 
conditions  as  dealers  in  the  East  who  are  near  the 
factory. 


MAllKETLVG  A  NEW  PRODUCT        169 

§  6 

The  name  by  whicli  the  articU*  is  to  be  known  is  far 
more  important  than  many  manufat'tnrcrs  realize.  Suc- 
ecssfiil  advertising?  will  ultimately  nmke  that  name  a 
part  of  the  daily  language  of  the  people.  Surely  few 
words  in  our  language  are  more  familiar  to  us  than 
"Sapolio"  or  "Pianola."  It  may  be  set  down  as  a  sim- 
ple rule  that  the  name  of  the  artiele  should  be  as 
descriptive  as  possible,  capable  of  being  protected  by  the 
copyright  laws,  easily  pronounced  and  easily  remem- 
bered. It  is  very  hard  to  get  a  name  which  has  all  of 
these  qualifications.  "Kodak"  and  "Uneeda"  have  all 
but  the  first.  In  the  attempt  to  give  a  description  of  the 
article  in  the  name  many  advertisers  are  led  far  afield, 
and  the  result  is  a  monstrosity  difficult  to  remember, 
still  more  difficult  to  pronounce,  which  clings  to  that 
article  as  long  as  it  lives ;  a  dead  weight  requiring  just 
so  much  additional  advertising  power  to  stamp  it  upon 
the  minds  of  a  fickle  and  already  overburdened  public. 

By  a  peculiarity  of  our  copyright  and  patent  laws,  a 
word  in  common  use  in  the  language  cannot  be  protected. 
' '  Ivory  Soap, ' '  for  instance,  is  protected  only  by  equity. 
That  is,  the  courts  recognize  the  long  use  of  the  name 
"Ivory"  as  applied  to  soap,  and  would  decide  against 
an  infringer,  but  no  copyright  or  patent  can  be  obtained 
for  such  a  name  now. 

This  condition  has  produced  a  flood  of  coined  word 
names,  some  of  which  are  ridiculous. 


Nit-in-a-nu-way 

E-Z 

Iwanta 

U-All-Xo 

Tuec 

Necco 

Olus 

Nabisco 

160      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 


Ansco 

Amoptico 

Reprus 

Tiz 

Sealpackerchief 

Shac 

Excello 

Hajoca 

O-Cedar  Mop 

Fits-U 

are  all  examples  of  sound  and  sense  sacrificed  to  a 
strained  originality.  A  common  form  of  name  is  to 
take  the  initials  of  the  corporation  name,  producing  such 
words  as  "Nabisco,"  "Esco"  and  so  forth.  The  best 
judgment  still  favors  the  manufacturer's  name  followed 
by  the  name  of  the  product,  of  which'  "Baker's  Cocoa," 
"Williams'  Shaving  Soap,"  "Dixon's  Graphite"  and 
' '  Mennen  's  Talcum  Powder ' '  are  examples. 

Numerous  legal  decisions  have  upheld  the  prior  right 
of  such  a  manufacturer  to  the  use  of  his  own  name 
applied  to  his  own  product.  In  the  famous  Baker  case 
the  courts  barred  a  man  whose  name  actually  was 
"Baker"  from  calling  his  product  "Baker's  Cocoa,"  it 
being  apparent  that  this  was  a  barefaced  attempt  to 
trade  upon  the  reputation  of  the  original  Baker 's  Cocoa. 


Name  and  trade-mark  are  more  or  less  involved  with 
each  other.  Sometimes  the  name  and  trade-mark  are 
the  same.  Frequently  a  distinctive  form  of  lettering  of 
the  name  is  the  trade-mark.  Almost  equally  often  the 
trade-mark  is  a  separate  device,  and  is  used  both  in 
connection  with  the  name  and  otherwise.  Frequently 
the  trade-mark  is  older  than  the  name,  and  is  added 
on  to  pin  up  the  established  goodwill  with  the  newly 
named  product. 


SiqO 


COMMaNlT^ 


MH>  VASF  MAW, 


e/7 

jELL-0 

Welch's 

Crape   Juice 


^^^^(^'&!^gW^P^'^n  Kodak 

^EiHVBDf  Boa  Ami 

zinc  Qs^tw-p 

AMMaNxiDEAL  Williams' 

il  Radiators  *^Iboilers         TP    in  J 

Talc  rowder 

^^^&  Quaker  5Jf' Laces 

COLOftTE'S 

SHAUINO  CaTHER 

Trade-marks. — A    characteristic    style   of   lettering   is   frequently 
used  to  give  continuity  and  individuality  to  advertisements. 


162      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Sometimes  the  advertising  agent  beginning  advertis- 
ing with  an  old  trade-mark  is  compelled  to  tinker  and 


Original  Gordon  Hosiery  Trade-mark 

polish  up  the  mark  which  is  an  unpleasant,  carelessly 
drawn,  unprepossessing  mark  made  in  the  early  days  of 

^lordon 

^<^y    HOSIERY 

New  Gordon  Hosiery  Trade-mark. — The  original  trade-mark  of 
Gordon  Hosiery  redesigned  to  bring  it  more  in  the  spirit  of 
modern   taste   in   these  things. 

the  business  before  anyone  realized  the  importance  a 
trade-mark  could  attain  under  the  influence  of  advertis- 
ing.    Frequently  this  is  done  so  carefully  and  through 


MARKETING  A  NKW  PRODUCT        Hi. 

such  gradual  clianfjcs  that  tin-  public  is  led  alonjr  the 
saiiu'  path  and  docs  not  icali/c  that  the  final  form  of  the 
trade-mark  resembles  very  lit  lie  the  orifjinal  form.  The 
old  mark  for  Gordon  Ifosierv,  made  with  a  markinf? 
brush  in  a  style  very  popular  thirty  years  ago,  is  shown 
here  together  with  its  present  form  after  having  received 
the  loving  atti-ntion  of  a  skilled  designer. 

When  an  advertising  agent   has  the  opportunity   to 


KiRScuBAiM  "Cherry  Tree"  Trahe  mark 

create  a  name  and  a  trade-mark,  taking  into  considera- 
tion all  of  the  future  possibilities  of  liiat  nuu'k  in  con- 
nection with  adverti.sing.  stationery,  literature,  and  the 
application  of  the  mark  and  the  name  to  the  goods,  the 
results  are  in  themselves  a  kind  of  advertising  which  ma- 
terially helps  the  other  forms  of  advertising  to  which 
it  is  joined. 

The  creation  of  an  appropriate  mark  olTers  so  great  a 
possibility  to  the  combination  of  imagination  and  busi- 
ness shrewdness  that  it  should  never  be  left  to  haphaz- 
ard, snap  judgment 

The  little  cherry  tree  designed  by  George  Oyer  as  the 
permanent  trade-mark  of  Kirschbaum  Gompany.  the 
manufacturing  clothiers,  is  an  instance  of  such  clever- 
ness because  "Kirschbaum''  translated  means  "cherry 
tree."     "Cherry  tree"  is  associated  in  the  American 


V 


164.      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

mind  with  unhesitating  honesty,  and  a  tree  of  any  kind 
is  the  typical  symbol  for  growth.  The  mark  as  made 
is  an  interesting  spot  in  the  advertising  wherever  used. 
In  an  entirely  different  way  the  adoption  of  the  signa- 
ture of  Thomas  A.  Edison  as  the  trade-mark  of  his  allied 
manufacturing  interests  is  a  good  point,  partly  because 
the  name  of  the  great  inventor  has  a  certain  advertising 
value  in  itself,  and  partly  because  a  signature  has  a 
personality.     It  is  not  often  that  a  business  that  is  ad- 


INCORPORATED  J 

Thomas  A.  Edison  Signature 

vertised  is  owned  and  controlled  by  a  man  who  is  him- 
self the  subject  of  as  much  newspaper  and  magazine 
copy  as  ]Mr.  Edison. 

The  idea  of  the  personality  of  a  signature  has  been 
used  to  the  utmost  by  John  Wanamaker.  A  series  of 
great  department  stores  are  benefited  when  associated 
with  a  single  individual.  The  use  of  the  name  "John 
Wanamaker,"  even  though  it  represents  an  incorporated 


'm^^ 


oA 


John  Wanamaker  Signature 


company,  when  supplemented  with  Mr.  AVanamaker's 
own  signature  as  the  typical  trade-mark  of  the  business, 
gives  customers  a  sense  of  personal  touch  that  they  could 
not  possibly  have  or  feel,  say,  toward  the  Incorporated 
Dry  Goods  Company  or  something  like  that. 


Trade-marks 


LONG 

distance 
telephone: 


of   the  many   tra<le-markf>  that  havo  been 


made  known  by  advertising  and  serve  to  identify  the  goods. 


166      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

The  subject  cannot  be  exhausted.  Only  the  possibil- 
ities can  be  suggested.  Enough  has  been  said,  however, 
to  show  that  the  creation  of  the  trade-mavk  is  a  very 
important  step  toward  the  impression  that  the  advertis- 
ing is  to  make  upon  the  public. 

A  similar  story  attaches  to  the  well-known  Iner-Seal 
mark  of  the  National  Biscuit  Company.  This  was  origi- 
nally a  mark  of  an  old  Italian  printer,  but  in  the  last 
hundred  years  it  has  been  used  by  Lloyd 's  to  mark  sea- 
worthy vessels,  and  is  called  the  Plimsoll  mark.  With 
this  idea  in  mind  it  \vas  adopted  to  distinguish  the  air- 
proof,  water-tight  package  of  the  National  Biscuit  Com- 
pany. "While  it  is  just  as  good  for  the  purposes  of  a 
trade-mark  whether  this  story  is  remembered  in  connec- 
tion with  it  or  not,  to  a  great  many  people  there  will  be 
an  added  interest  in  knowing  the  story  of  its  origin. 


The  next  step  which  the  prospective  advertiser  will 
take  in  consultation  with  his  advertising  agent  is  the 
preparation  of  the  package.  The  package  technically  is 
the  form  in  which  the  goods  reach  the  consumer.  In 
many  kinds  of  goods  the  package  is  non-existent.  Shoes, 
for  instance,  are  usually  delivered  in  a  shoe  box  bearing 
the  name  and  address  of  the  retail  dealer.  The  only 
identification  possible  in  the  case  of  shoes  is  the  mark 
upon  the  sole,  the  lining  or  the  strap  of  the  shoe.  Cloth- 
ing bears  a  label  inside  the  coat  or  the  pocket.  Hats 
have  labels  either  in  the  crown  or  on  the  band.  So 
with  gloves,  shirts  and  other  articles  of  wearing  apparel. 
The  collar  manufacturer,  although  his  collars  are  usually 
sold  apart  from  the  box,  acquires  a  distinctive  box  which 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        167 

is  tho  piu'kuj^e  and  wliich  ^^ives  tlio  aclvortisor's  own 
atmospliere  to  the  shelves  of  the  dealer.  It  is  easily  pos- 
sible to  eoneeive  a  development  whereby  a  suit  of  clothes 
will  he  put  up  in  a  dealer's  box  by  the  uumufaeturer  and 
bearin«;j  his  label,  and  shoes  likewise,  but  these  are  de- 
velopments whieh  will  come  gradually,  as  they  conflict 
with  long-standing,  established  contlitions  in  the  trade. 

Other  articles,  however,  being  more  or  less  new,  have 
possibilities  in  the  package  which  shrewd  advertisers,  or 
the  agents,  have  been  (piick  to  n-ali/e. 

The  advertising  of  Big  Ben  Clock  has  probably  reached 
everyone  who  reads  these  pages.  Not  the  lea.st  interest- 
ing part  of  this  advertising  is  the  very  attractive  box 
in  which  the  clock  is  sold,  and  which  the  dealer  uses 
both  as  window  display  and  for  delivering  the  clock  to 
his  customers. 


Big  Be.v  Box 

Proprietary  articles,  talcum  powder,  .shaving  soaps, 
toilet  soaps,  dentifrices,  as  well  as  a  great  many  food 
products,  require  a  carton  or  can  to  preserve  their  con- 
tents. This  carton  or  can  in  the  hands  of  a  skilled  adver- 
tising designer  becomes  one  of  the  units  of  the  adver- 
tising campaign. 


168      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§9 

Package  possibilities  are  but  little  realized,  and  only 
when  an  advertiser  gets  in  touch  with  a  creative  agent 
does  he  secure  the  maximum  advertising  advantage  from 
his  package. 

Many  products  have  been  put  up  and  sold  in  conven- 
tional containers  for  some  time.  Few  manufacturers 
realize  the  advertising  possibilities  of  these  packages. 

Containers  are  usually  pasteboard,  tin,  glass  or  cloth. 
They  are  susceptible  of  treatment  by  printing,  litho- 
graphing or  other  processes.  This  affords  a  practically 
unlimited  opportunity  for  giving  the  package  a  distinc- 
tive dress,  without  additional  cost. 

Little  thinking  has  been  done  along  these  lines.  The 
original  manufacturer  accepted  the  device  gotten  up  by 
his  lithographer  or  manufacturer  of  containers.  This 
design  became  the  standard.  It  was  copied  by  every 
other  manufacturer  in  that  line. 

Now  and  then  some  manufacturer  suddenly  asks  him- 
self whether  his  package  must  necessarily  be  so,  and 
introduces  some  new  treatment  which  is  good  and,  there- 
fore, successful.  So  from  time  to  time  a  package  breaks 
loose  from  the  *' all-look-alike"  bunch  and  asserts  its 
individuality.  Still  all  of  the  great  commercial  lines, 
underwear,  hosiery,  canned  vegetables,  toilet  articles, 
crackers,  preserves,  pickles  and  other  things — many  of 
which  should  make  an  appetizing  appeal — are  suffering 
from  an  attack  of  violent  conservatism. 

In  this  sort  of  work  most  manufacturers  are  chasing 
each  other  around  in  a  circle  and  keeping  within  the 
limits  of  that  circle — a  small  one — and  losing  all  of  the 
great  possibilities  that  attach  to  the  inviting  package. 

There  is  a  small,  barren  island  somewhere  off  the  coast 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        169 

of  Ireland  which  produces  neither  crops  nor  livestock. 
Some  irujuisitive  tourists  askid  how  the  people  lived. 
The  reply  was  that  they  did  it  by  doing  each  other's 
washing. 

So  it  is  with  these  manufacturers.    No  new  ideas  are 


Williams'  Holder  Top  Box 


injected  into  the  patterns  for  their  packages.    They  are 
produced  by  copying  each  other's. 

The  right  way  to  design  a  package  for  a  given  article 
is  to  start  as  if  that  article  had  never  been  put  up  in  a 
package  before.  Find,  first,  the  best  material  from 
which  to  make  the  package ;  second,  the  best  shape  or 
form  in  which  to  put  it.  Then  ask  how  to  decorate  that 
package  so  as  to  suggest  the  spirit  of  the  goods  it  con- 
tains. 


170      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

The  package  should  be  considered  as  it  will  stand 
on  the  shelf  in  the  store  where  it  is  sold.  Its  effect  in- 
dividually and  in  mass  should  be  noticed.  IMore  than 
all,  it  should  have  a  certain  touch  which  appeals ;  the 
sort  of  touch  which  is  recognized  by  everyone  who  sees 
it  but  which  is  very  difficult  to  describe. 


§  10 

Among  the  soaps  put  out  by  a  certain  manufacturer 
was  one  which  bore  the  name  of  Brier  Rose.  It  was 
never  advertised  but  it  was  sold  to  department  and  other 
stores  where,  piled  up  in  pyramids  on  the  notion  coun- 
ter, it  was  sold  for  ten  cents  a  carton  of  three  cakes. 
Its  carton  was  no  better  and  no  worse  than  that  of  the 
average  rococo-kokomo  style  which  has  laid  its  blasting 
hand  upon  nearly  all  soap  and  other  toilet  packages.  A 
certain  satisfactory  sale  resulted  from  it  every  year. 
The  manufacturer  asked  an  artist  with  the  advertising 
instinct  to  make  a  new  carton  for  it.  This  artist  neg- 
lected to  look  at  all  the  other  cartons  that  had  ever  been 
made  for  soaps.  He  simply  considered  the  size  and  shape 
of  the  carton,  the  possibilities  of  the  color  printings  al- 
lowed him,  the  suggestion  of  the  name  "Brier  Rose,"  and 
he  made  a  package  which  was  in  its  simple  and  humble 
M'ay  a  work  of  art.  To  make  a  long  story  short,  this 
soap  in  its  new  carton  and  new  wrapper,  without  any 
advertising  and  without  any  additional  exploiting,  sold, 
under  the  same  old  plan,  treble  its  original  sales  in  a 
short  time. 

The  Crofut  &  Knapp  Company,  realizing  that  a  band- 
box has  considerable  superficial  area  susceptible  of  ad- 
vertising decoration,  had  made  for  their  New  York  store. 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        171 

Dobbs  &  Company,  a  baiul-box  surrounded  by  a  full- 
color  painting  of  that  stn'tch  of  Fifth  Avenue  wliieh 
contains  their  store.  Immediately  that  hand-box  and  the 
hat  it  contained  were  lifted  as  far  above  the  sky-line  of 
ordinary  band-boxes  and  ordinary  hats  as  the  Wool- 
worth  liuil(iin«'  is  lifted  above  the  skv-line  of  New  York. 


§11 

These  instances  cannot  be  multiplied  indefinitely  be- 
cause there  are  not  many  of  them.  In  spite  of  the  tre- 
mendous advanta«j:e  g:iven  to  a  product  by  making;  its 
package  part  of  its  advertising,  manufacturers,  backed 
up  by  their  salesmen,  hesitate  to  make  a  change.  They 
even  hesitate  when  bringing  out  an  entirely  new  product 
to  depart  from  the  traditions  of  package  marking  in  that 
line. 

The  German  designers  are  giving  attention  to  the 
appearance  of  commercial  packages  with  interesting  re- 
sults. Leading  artists  do  not  hesitate  to  devote  their 
talents  to  this  humble  field.  Some  of  the  containers 
used  for  bi.scuits,  chocolate,  beverages  and  other  articles 
are  reproduced  here.  Only  a  faint  idea,  however,  can  be 
gathered  of  their  attractiveness  from  these  one-color 
reproductions,  because  color  played  a  very  important 
part  in  the  handling.  Even  in  the  black-and-white  of 
the  half-tone  it  can  be  easily  seen  that  each  of  these 
packages  has  an  individual  appeal  of  its  own. 

Take  a  handful  of  American  packages — chocolates, 
breakfast  foods,  biscuits,  teas  or  anything  else — and 
lay  them  down  on  a  counter  and  place  any  one  of 
these  German  packages  in  the  midst,  show  them  to  any 
unsophisticated,  untutored  mind  and  that  mind  will  in- 


172      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

stinctively  and  unconsciously  select  the  German  package 
before  all  the  rest. 

That  should  be  the  effect  of  every  package.  It  should 
invite  picking  up,  it  should  invite  inspection,  it  should 
invite  sampling  its  contents. 

One  can  company  manufactured  enough  tin  cans  last 
year  to  reach  six  times  around  the  world.  Just  think  of 
the  wasted  advertising  space  on  the  outside  of  these  tin 
cans.  Just  think  of  the  ugly,  uninviting,  tasteless  cans 
of  tomatoes,  soups,  fish  and  fruits  that  are  sold  over  the 
counter  every  year.  If  their  contents  were  as  insipid 
as  their  outside  treatment,  they  would  never  sell.  Why 
shouldn't  a  vegetable  can  look  as  good  as  its  contents? 
Why  should  it  not  be  its  own  best  advertisement  ?    Why  ? 

Simply  because  ninety-five  per  cent,  of  the  manufac 
turers  of  this  country  lack  business  imagination,  and  the 
other  five  per  cent,  are  bound  hand  and  foot  by  tradition. 

Let  me  mention  here  the  Alighieri  Soups,  the  beau- 
tiful can  for  which  was  designed  by  W.  A.  Dwiggins, 
inspired  by  Hogarth.  These  soups  are  not  advertised, 
but  no  one  can  ever  forget  the  attractive  can. 

Recently  a  cracker  company  making  excellent  crackers 
brought  out  a  package  for  a  popular-priced  biscuit  which 
was  so  close  an  imitation  of  the  package  for  a  similar 
popular-priced  biscuit  of  another  large  company  that 
some  legal  wrangle  was  involved.  The  point,  of  course, 
was  that  it  was  a  breach  of  business  ethics  to  imitate  a 
competitor's  package  and  thereby  hope  to  sidetrack  some 
of  the  publicity  given  to  the  original  package.  From  my 
point  of  view,  this  is  immaterial  and  beside  the  question. 
The  real,  grievous  crime  of  the  second  company  was  not 
in  imitating  its  competitor's  package,  but  in  imitating 
anything  that  so  little  realized  the  possibilities  of  a  pack- 
age as  the  ariginal  package. 


MARKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        173 

When  you  go  into  a  German  restaurant,  a  little  tray  of 
cartons  of  crackers  and  biscuits  is  st-t  upon  rvery  table. 
These  are  individuals — just  enough  for  one  person. 
They  cost  a  few  pfennig,  and  almost  anyone  who  is  not 
blind  would  buy  them  for  the  sake  of  the  carton  alone, 
regardless  of  the  contents.  There  is  something  so  irre- 
sistibly inviting  about  these  cute  little  packages — yes, 
"cute"  is  the  word — that  it  doesn't  make  any  difference 
whether  they  contain  spice  cakes  or  Rough-on-rats;  it  is 
the  package  you  want. 

The  same  process  that  is  now  putting  the  hideous,  re- 
pulsive, <!bmmonplace  and  stultified  designs  upon  tin, 
paper  and  pasteboard,  could  produce  packages  lik(>  these, 
or  even  better,  if  the  advertising  brains  of  the  country 
were  directed  toward  this  profitable  and  possible  field  of 
publicity. 

No  one  who  believes  in  and  practices  the  modern  ad- 
vertising idea  can  fail  to  be  made  ambitious  for  the  prac- 
tical possibilities  of  the  American  package  after  leaving 
an  exhibit  such  as  represented  by  the  German  packages 
shown  here  and  gazing  into  a  shop  window  containing 
heaps  of  garish  and  bizarre  cartons,  labels  and  packages. 
The  matter  is  not  by  anj'  means  one  of  ta.ste  alone,  but 
of  practical  results.  It  has  been  well  demonstrated  that 
really  good  art  does  not  lack  appreciation  and  response. 
Instead  of  being  last  to  receive  the  touch  of  high-grade 
advertising  ability,  the  package  invites  first  consid- 
eration. 

§  12 

The  embryo  national  advertiser,  then,  having  studied 
his  market,  lined  up  his  trade,  secured  a  name  and  trade- 
mark, put  the  proper  package  on  his  goods,  is  ready  to 


Group  of  German  Packages. — Some  of  the  packages  and  con- 
tainers used  by  German  manufacturers.  The  originals  were 
much  more  striking,  owing  to  the  use  of  color. 


MAUK17riN(;  A   NEW   PK()l)r(  T        IT.", 

begin  his  actual  advertising  campaign.  This  is  tlie  point 
at  whiclj  too  many  manufactiirci-s  Ix'gin,  to  their  own 
loss  and  the  serious  detrimmt  of  advertising. 

Our  ideal  manufacturer  who  has  been  shrewd  enough 
to  secure  an  intelligent  and  creative  agent,  has  taken  all 
these  steps,  reasoned  properly  on  the  information  st«- 
cured,  and  created  an  article  which,  from  every  point  of 
view,  is  desirable,  and  then  his  advertising  agent  pre- 
pares the  plan. 

Pearlier  chapters  dwell  on  this  pha.se  of  the  advertising 
agent's  work. 

We  can  assume  that  the  plan  has  been  prepared,  pre- 
sumably in  the  form  of  a  coujpiete  portfolio,  accom- 
panied by  a  typewritten  description  giving  lists  and 
estimates. 

Then  this  plan  must  be  considered  from  .six  points  of 
view: 

First,  how  docs  it  affect  the  manufacturer's  traveling 
men?  Not  only  nnist  they  and  their  work  be  considered 
in  the  plan,  but  the  plan  must  tirst  be  told  to  them. 
This  is  accomplished  by  salesmen's  conv<>ntions.  Tlu 
modern  advertising  agent  and  his  a.ssistants  go  before 
the  corps  of  salesmen  perhaps  several  times  a  year;  cer- 
tainly every  season.  They  explain  the  plan  in  detail. 
Charts  and  diagrams  are  hung  up,  stereopticon  pictures 
are  frequently  used,  showing  the  part  the  salesman  is  to 
perform  in  persuading  the  dealer  to  use  for  his  own 
purposes  the  advertising  prepared  for  him.  These  things 
are  all  laid  before  the  salesmen  as  effectively  as  pos- 
sible. 

Next  the  plan  is  scrutinized  from  the  point  of  view 
of  the  jobber.  Is  he  antagonistic?  If  .so.  what  methods 
must  be  used  to  smooth  out  that  antagonism  ?  Is  there 
any  method  to  get  the  jobber  on  our  side?    Can  we  get 


Brown  Durreli,  Chart. — Wall  chart  used  to  explain  the  adver- 
tising campaign  to  the  sales  lorce.  Each  one  of  these  units  is 
attached  to  the  others  by  means  of  hooks  and  staples.  The 
campaign  is  built  up  in  the  course  of  the  talk  to  the  salesmen 
piece  by  piece  until  it  all  hangs  together,  each  part  mutually 
interdependent  on  the  otlier. 


Mi^RKETING  A  NEW  PRODUCT        177 

at  the  jobber's  salesmen  to  put  tlieni  in  something  the 
same  state  of  mind  as  the  manufacturer's  sah'smenT 
The  jobber's  plaee  in  the  distribution  of  goods  has  been 
discussed  and  need  not  be  further  enhirgrd  upon  here, 
except  to  emphasize  the  fact  that,  if  the  goods  are  to  be 
sold  through  jobbers,  the  jobber  nuist  have  his  niche  in 
the  advertising  plan. 

The  careful  study  made  of  the  dealer's  attitude  and  of 
conditions  in  the  dealer's  store  has  been  used  to  make  the 
part  of  the  advertising  plan  that  affects  him  particularly 
effective.  The  chief  part  that  the  dealer  plays  is  as  a 
distributor  of  advertising  as  well  as  a  distributor  of  the 
goods.  The  modern  manufacturer  supplies  his  dealers 
with  every  conceivable  form  of  advertising,  which  is  not 
only  advertising  of  the  manufacturer's  goods,  but  inci- 
dentally advertising  of  the  dealer's  own  .store.  The  suc- 
cess with  which  the  dealer  can  be  persuaded  to  use  this 
advertising  has  much  to  do  with  the  general  effect  of  the 
advertising  plan.  It  is  not  merely  that  so  much  more 
advertising  is  distributed,  but  the  fact  that  the  dealer 
has  put  his  name  and  his  reputation  behind  the  goods 
gives  them  a  sort  of  permanence.  lie  cannot  go  back  on 
this  action.  Having  become  recognized  as  a  distributor 
of  such  goods,  he  is  more  or  less  pledged  to  them  for 
the  future. 

The  successful  advertiser  will  not  stop  there  with  the 
dealer.  lie  will  consider  the  dealer's  own  salesmen.  He 
will  remember  that  they  are  the  ones  that  come  in  con- 
tact with  the  customers.  Their  state  of  mind  is  impor- 
tant. Any  help  he  can  give  them  is  worth  while.  This 
help  may  extend  even  to  the  formation  of  an  elaborate 
salesmen's  school.  The  salesman  must  be  taught  to  sell 
these  goods  and  sell  them  right.  Display  racks,  store 
cases  and  other  fixtures  are  frequently  used  to  make 


178      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

these  sales  easier  and  to  enable  the  customer  to  select  the 
goods  with  less  trouble. 

The  work  of  the  advertising  manager  of  a  company 
advertising  nationally  and  through  an  agency  is  an  im- 
portant one.  It  is  important,  depending  upon  his  rela- 
tion to  his  organization.  The  success  of  advertising, 
however  well  planned  by  the  agent,  and  however  well 
supplied  with  money  by  the  advertiser,  depends  after  all 
upon  faithful  and  systematic  work  in  the  advertiser's 
own  department,  and  for  this  work  the  advertising  man- 
ager is  responsible. 

One  of  the  best  organized  advertising  departments  in 
the  country  is  that  of  the  Sherwin-Williams  Company. 
This  department  comprises  180  people  headed  by  a  very 
efficient  staff.  The  Advertising  IManager,  Charles 
Mitchell  Lemperly,  in  an  article  contributed  to  Adver- 
tising &  Selling,  describes  the  work  of  his  department 
and  accompanies  it  by  a  very  helpful  and  suggestive 
chart.    He  says: 

"In  the  chart  accompanying  this  article,  I  have  outlined  the 
organization  of  our  advertising  department  here  and  have 
tried  to  show  the  method  of  reporting  and  the  definition  of 
duties. 

"The  General  Manager  in  most  concerns  is  ultimately  re- 
sponsible for  advertising,  and  it  is  customary  for  most 
advertising  managers  to  work  hand  in  hand  with  him  or 
with  the  General  Sales  Manager,  as  the  case  may  be.  In 
some  concerns  the  President  is  the  executive  head  of  the 
advertising,  but  more  and  more  there  is  the  tendencj'  to 
settle  all  important  advertising  matters  in  conference  or  com- 
mittee. 

"At  such  meetings  those  in  attendance  ought  to  be  the 
President,  the  General  Manager  or  the  General  Sales  Man- 
ager, the  Advertising  Manager,  the  head  copyman,  a  repre- 


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180      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

sentative  of  the  agency,  and  in  some  eases  department  heads 
who  are  i-esponsible  for  output  on  some  certain  product  to  be 
discussed  at  the  meeting. 

"In  this  chart  you  will  notice  the  Advertising  Manager  is 
an  executive  with  responsible  men  reporting  to  him  on  all 
phases  of  the  work. 

"You  may  argue  that  there  are  too  many  reporting  direct, 
and  that  there  should  only  be  one  or  two  channels  of  re- 
porting direct  to  the  Advertising  Manager.  This  plan,  how- 
ever, as  shown  on  the  chart,  can  be  tested  and  proven  as  a 
most  efficient  one.  Its  main  advantage,  to  my  mind,  lies  in 
the  fact  that  the  Advertising  Manager  is  accountable,  or 
should  be,  for  all  work  going  through,  such  as  printings,  price 
lists,  catalogs,  booklets,  etc.  When  the  head  of  the  sales 
department  calls  for  information  on  the  revised  printing  of 
the  dealers'  reference  book,  he  is  naturally  going  to  inquire 
direct,  or  through  his  assistant,  from  the  Advertising  Man- 
ager. 

"Meanwhile  if  the  Chief  Clerk  of  the  advertising  depart- 
ment has  been  reporting  direct  to  the  Advertising  Manager, 
the  latter  knows  the  exact  status  of  the  dealers'  reference  book 
and  can  answer  at  once.  If  the  Chief  Clex'k  has  been  re- 
porting to  the  Assistant  Advertising  Manager,  or  to  some- 
one else,  time  is  lost  in  looking  up  the  information.  I  do 
not  mean  to  imply  that  the  Advertising  Manager  should  be 
burdened  with  all  details  of  all  features,  but  those  pertain- 
ing to  sales  department  work  or  important  lines  of  goods 
should  be  before  him  at  all  times. 

"Then,  too,  the  Assistant  Advertising  Manager,  in  my 
opinion,  is  more  valuable  as  a  copy  and  planning  man  than 
as  a  Svatch  dog,'  and  he  should  not  be  loaded  down  with 
inquiries  as  to  office  details.  The  Chief  Clerk  should  be  the 
'office  manager*  and  together  with  the  Manager's  secretary 
should  form  the  'business  end'  of  the  department.  (See 
Chart  No.  2.) 

"The  Assistant  Advertising  Manager  should  be  business 
head  enough  to  know  quantities  for  printing,  to  get  proper 


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182      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

estimates  and  see"  that  printing  orders  are  properly  entered 
and  approved,  but  should  not  be  bothered  with  details  of 
stocklows,  stocks  on  hand,  amount  used  last  year,  etc.  The 
Chief  Clerk  should  have  all  the  latter  information  available 
for  those  who  may  desire  it." 


CHAPTER    VI 
THE    ADVERTISING    RENAISSANCE 

§   1 

Advertising,  like  overythinp  else  in  this  wonderful 
country,  has  developed  too  fast.  This  headlong  rush  has 
produced  success  rather  than  efficiency.  The  success  has 
been  a  succes  d'estimc — too  many  gallery  plays;  too 
few  earned  runs.  There  has  been  an  analogy  in  the  mag- 
ical expansion  of  the  automobile  industry.  There  is  a 
greater  one  in  the  maudlin  exploitation  of  the  country's 
natural  resources.  Our  cities  are  being  administered  in 
something  the  same  lavi.sh  way.  But  advertising  has 
not  been  permitted  to  follow  its  headlong  course,  making 
good  without  betraying  its  formula ;  making  bad  with- 
out teaching  its  lesson.  The  manufacturer  who  uses 
this  great  force  to  sell  his  goods  has  begun  to  submit 
it  to  the  same  tests  to  which  he  submitted  his  shop  costs, 
sales  or  shipping  methods.  Long  ago  he  admitted  that 
advertising  is  a  necessity.  Now  he  asks  can  it  be  made 
more  exact. 

§2 

This  question  was  anticipated.  The  shrewder  adver- 
tising men  realized  years  ago  that  the  time  had  come  to 
squeeze  the  waste  out  of  advertising.  The  more  san- 
guine ones  said  advertising  could  be  made  an  exact 

183 


184      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

science.  The  least  visionary  realized  that  it  should  be 
more  efficient.  The  manufacturer  who  bought  advertis- 
ing as  a  commodity  began  to  scrutinize  more  sharply 
what  he  was  buying.  Now  if  he  is  wise  he  is  buying  it 
as  a  service,  or  rather  as  a  commodity  made  more  valu- 
able by  a  service.  It  was  conceded  that  many  advertising 
campaigns  were  very  successful,  but  occasionally  an 
.apparently  good  campaign  went  wrong.  It  had  stubbed 
its  toe  over  a  small  thing  overlooked  in  the  haste  of 
making  a  running  start. 


Ten  years  ago  a  food  manufacturer  invented  a  self- 
raising  flour.  In  a  short  time  he  had  spent  $350,000 
in  advertising  it  only  to  reap  a  humiliating  failure. 
The  stuff  had  been  quickly  placed  with  the  grocer,  but  it 
came  back  even  more  quickly.  The  explanation  was 
simple.  The  flour  was  a  mechanical  mixture.  The 
leaven  sifted  to  the  bottom  of  the  package.  When  the 
housewife  used  it  from  the  top  she  got  just  plain  flour. 
This  defect  c»uld  have  been  remedied  at  first.  But  it 
was  now  too  late.  The  whole  thing  was  dead  and  buried 
beyond  recall.  It  was  a  Waterloo  for  that  flour,  with 
St.  Helena  for  its  promoter. 

To-day  many  shrewd  manufacturers  keep  advertising 
men  at  work  two  years  before  a  single  line  of  publicity 
is  sent  out.  A  theatrical  producer  knows  that  there  is  a 
lot  to  do  before  the  curtain  goes  up.  The  manufacturer 
concedes  the  power  of  advertising,  concedes  the  magnifi- 
cent campaign  that  is  possible  for  his  goods,  but  he  waits 
first  to  be  shown  some  tables  of  statistics,  some,  sets  of 
conditions,  proving  that  his  campaign  dovetails  with  con- 
ditions that  exist  which  cannot  be  changed  by  the  adver- 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE      185 

tising.  A  master's  certificate  is  necv'ssary  to  navigate 
a  vessel,  but  the  most  experienced  navigator  will  not 
steer  without  a  chart. 

A  coffee  roaster  has  money  to  spend  and  coffee  to  ad- 
vertise. Hut  before  launching  the  coffee  he  investigates 
his  market.  What  kind  of  coffee  do  people  want  ?  he 
asks.  Can  the  same  blend  be  sold  all  over  the  country  T- 
Shall  it  be  ground  or  bean?  What  carton  should  be 
used,  what  size,  what  price?  Will  the  grocer  stand 
for  a  package  coffee?  Is  coffee  a  vice  or  a  food?  How 
does  he  find  the  Answers?  He  interviews  jobbers  and 
grocers.  He  canvas.ses  consumers  from  hou.se  to  hou.se, 
not  only  in  Danbury,  Conn.,  but  equally  in  Hcershcba, 
N.  M.  He  follows  the  trail  of  every  package  of  coffee 
so  far  launched,  and  learns  what  happened  to  it.  It 
delays  the  campaign  a  year  or  so,  but  when  he  starts, 
he  starts  right.  He  has  the  ground  under  his  feet.  It's 
the  difference  between  the  Twentieth  Century  Limited 
and  the  Zeppelin. 

§4 

Present  methods  are  still  crude,  but  they  yield  results, 
and  these  results  are  interesting.  Some  time  ago  the 
advertising  man  extended  his  work  from  advertising 
pure  and  simple  to  a  study  of  sales  problems.  To-day 
progressive  houses  combine  their  sales  and  advertising 
under  one  executive.  The  effect  has  been  to  benefit  both 
departments. 

The  largest  shoemaker  in  the  world  wished  to  invade 
virgin  territory  with  a  trade-marked  shoe.  The  first 
step  was  a  canvass  which  went  over  that  territory  like 
the  United  States  Census.  A  crew  of  salesmen  under  a 
keen  sales  manager,   accompanied   by   the   advertising 


186      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

manager  and  the  advertising  agent,  visited  nearly  every 
town  in  five  states.  They  found  dealers  that  were 
friendly  and  dealers  that  were  hostile.  They  estimated 
the  friendliness  and  balanced  it  against  the  hostility. 
They  found  what  dealers  were  opposed  to  advertising 
and  what  advertising  they  were  opposed  to.  They 
learned  the  kind  of  shoes  that  sold  best,  who  sold  them, 
what  profit  he  got  from  these  and  the  probable  sales  a 
trade-marked  shoe  could  make.  This  estimate  fixed  the 
appropriation,  the  facts  gave  to  the  copy  its  tenor,  and 
the  first  year 's  sales  came  astonishingly  near  to  the  sales 
manager 's  estimate. 

That  was  an  instance  of  the  new  advertising  studying 
sales  problems. 

Here  is  the  way  it  revises  manufacturing  methods.  A 
maker  of  fine  stationery  found  that  no  sooner  had  his 
advertising  got  under  way  than  his  factory  was  con- 
gested. Salesmen  promised  goods  and  the  factory  could 
not  make  deliveries.  The  trouble  was  in  the  policy.  In 
years  past  every  dealer  had  expected  something  new 
every  season.  Each  novelty  was  promptly  duplicated  by 
every  competitor.  The  result  was  that  the  salesmen  were 
burdened  with  hundreds  of  samples ;  the  factory  crowded 
with  orders  for  small  lots.  This  house  advertised  two 
great  leaders,  two  brands  of  stationery  that  are  sold  and 
bought  everywhere.  But  there  was  no  room  in  the  fac- 
tory to  manufacture  them  because  of  the  small-lot  orders 
which  tied  up  the  plant,  which  were  never  advertised, 
which  added  nothing  to  the  prestige  of  the  house.  An 
efficiency  engineer  was  called  in.  The  policy  was 
changed.  In  a  short  time  the  factory  was  running  on 
fifty  per  cent,  more  goods  and  not  utilizing  all  the  floor 
space.  Now  the  obstacle  having  been  removed  from  the 
track,  the  train  of  advertising  can  go  ahead  at  full 


THE  ADVKHTISINC;  UKNAISSANCK      1H7 

speed.  Advertisiiif;  first  calU'd  attention  to  the  \v«'ak 
point  in  the  nianufacturin};  poliey  in  that  house.  I'lti- 
malely  it  will  revolutionize  the  poliey  of  the  entire  sta- 
tionery business. 

§  r, 

There  was  the  instanee  of  the  silk  manufacturer  who 
made  pure  silk.  He  did  not  know  what  his  advertising 
story  was,  but  the  advert  isinjjf  agent  found  out.  He 
went  to  the  various  silk  mills,  not  only  of  these  manu- 
facturers, but  others.  He  found  that  it  was  the  custom 
to  heavily  adulterate  the  silk,  to  make  it  heavier,  to  make 
it  weigh  more,  so  that  when  woven  into  the  fabric  it  gave 
a  thick,  firm  feel  to  the  touch.  This  silk,  instead  of 
wearing  for  ages  like  the  silk  of  our  grandmothers,  crum- 
bled away  in  a  single  season.  He  found  out  that  the 
common  adulterant  used  for  silk  was  tin — common  or 
garden  tin — the  kind  from  which  tin  cans  are  made. 
It  was  profitable  to  sell  tin  at  the  price  of  silk.  In  some 
cases  the  weight  of  the  silk  was  increa.sed  fifty  per  cent, 
by  the  addition  of  tin. 

The  pure  silk  mills  advertising  made  a  sensation,  not 
entirely  out  of  the  fact  that  much  silk  was  adulterated, 
but  chieHy  out  of  the  fact  that  the  adulterant  was  some- 
thing so  well  known  as  tin. 

This  story  furnished  the  backbone  of  a  campaign 
which,  though  snuill,  was  quite  successful.  The  story 
of  the  adulteration  of  silk  was  put  up  in  a  booklet.  The 
ads  emphasized  the  purity  of  the  silk  advertised  and 
urged  the  reader  to  send  for  the  book,  "The  Truth  About 
Silk."  This  is  a  rather  obvious  and  on-the-face-of-it  ac- 
count of  the  'vay  an  advertising  agent  must  find  out 
what  the  basic  story  is. 


188      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

There  are  many  instances  in  which  the  new  advertis- 
ing methods  have  made  suggestions  to  sales  and  manu- 
facturing departments  which  radically  changed  the  pol- 
icy, not  only  to  increase  the  success  of  the  advertising, 
but  even  to  increase  the  success  of  the  sales  department. 

Here  is  one : 

§  6 

A  shirt  and  collar  manufacturer,  one  of  the  largest 
in  the  world,  manufactured  collars  and  shirts  under  a 
brand  name.  The  collars  were  twenty-five-cent  collars 
and  the  shirts  were  a  line  of  shirts  of  varying  fabrics, 
ranging  in  retail  price  from  one  dollar  to  three.  In  the 
course  of  time  this  firm  put  out  a  collar  at  two  for  a 
quarter,  just  one-half  the  standard  price  of  a  collar,  and 
made  a  great  success.  In  starting  the  collar  it  was  not 
given  the  name  of  the  twenty-five-cent  collar,  partly 
to  keep  the  two  separate,  but  largely  because  it  was  not 
then  known  that  a  two- for- a- quarter  collar  would  ever 
be  the  big  end  of  the  business,  but  this  is  what  it  be- 
came. It  became  so  big  an  end  of  the  business  that  it 
overshadowed  all  the  rest  of  the  business,  and  its  trade 
name  was  the  best  known  name  for  collars  in  the  world. 
It  drowned  the  quarter  collar.  The  house  was  then  in 
the  position  of  selling  a  two-for-a-quarter  collar  under 
one  brand  name  and  a  line  of  shirts  under  the  other 
brand  name,  which  was  also  the  brand  name  of  the  al- 
most extinct  twenty-five  cent  collar.  Its  business  was 
divided  into  two  parts:  its  two-for-a-quarter  collar  un- 
der one  name  and  its  line  of  shirts  under  another  name, 
and  the  two-for-a-quarter  collar  business  was  many 
times  the  biggest  and  that  collar  the  best  known 
product. 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE      189 

The  advertising  agont  started  an  investigation  wliich 
resulted  in  some  sueli  set  of  faets  as  this: 

Originally  the  liaherdaslier  sold  eollars  and  shirts 
under  his  own — that  is,  the  haherdasher's — name,  lie 
did  not  sell  collars  and  shirts  that  hore  the  hrand  of  any 
manufacturer.  Away  hack  in  the  heginiiing  of  collar 
advertising,  the  habertlasher  was  gradually  persuaded  to 
sell  collars  that  bore  the  brand  name  of  a  manufacturer. 
This  was  the  entering  wedge.  The  branded  collar  grew 
in  volume  until  pretty  soon  nearly  every  habcrda«her 
and  men's  furnishing  store  sold  manufacturers'  branded 
collars  as  well  as  his  own  brand,  but  he  still  clung  to  his 
own  brand  of  shirts.  Then  the  manufacturer  started  in 
on  shirts  and  gradually  the  large  men's  furni.shing  stores 
were  weaned  away  somewhat  from  their  own  brand  in 
shirts,  but  not  so  fast  as  with  the  collars. 

This  was  the  state  of  mind  when  the  collar  manufac- 
turer, whose  fortunes  I  am  describing,  was  up  against 
the  problem  of  building  a  .shirt  trade  as  large  as  his 
collar  trade. 

In  analyzing  the  success  of  the  two-for-a-quarter  collar 
it  was  realized  that  the  success  consisted  of  three  things: 
a  popular  price  for  a  collar,  originality  in  style  and 
strong  advertising  of  the  brand  name.  Surely  if  these 
things  were  good  for  a  collar,  they  ought  to  be  good  for 
a  shirt. 

The  manufacturer,  however,  had  felt  for  a  long  time 
that  shirts  were  not  in  the  same  category  with  collars 
as  far  as  his  trade  was  concerned.  What  gave  him  this 
point  of  view  was  the  fact  that  the  dealer  had  clung 
longer  to  his  own  brand  of  shirts  than  he  had  to  his 
own  brand  of  collars,  and  also  because  no  shirt  had  ever 
been  advertised  as  well  as  the  two-for-a-quarter  collar. 
Also  shirts  were  a  mixed  line — a  great  many  different 


190      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

kinds  of  fabrics  and  colors  at  a  great  many  different 
prices. 

•  It  seemed  obvious,  however,  to  a  man  who  looked  at 
merchandising  from  the  advertising  point  of  view  that  a 
one-price  shirt  at  a  fixed  price,  enjoying  the  advantage 
of  the  tremendous  publicity  given  to  the  collar  name, 
would  be  a  success.  Finally  the  advertising  agent  per- 
suaded the  collar  manufacturer  that  this  was  true.  It 
was  found  impossible  to  have  a  one-price  shirt,  but  it  was 
decided  that  a  two-price  shirt  could  be  made  a  success, 
and  the  two-price  shirt  was  put  out  bearing  the  same 
brand  name  as  the  two-for-a-quarter  collar,  to  be  retailed 
at  $1.50  and  $2.00.  It  was  backed  up  by  advertising 
appropriate  to  and  in  keeping  with  the  campaign  on 
collars,  and  the  shirt  trade  of  this  collar  manufacturer 
began  to  get  into  a  pace  which  ultimately  was  des- 
tined to  bring  it  up  alongside  of  the  collar  busi- 
ness. 

Another  fixed  principle  of  this  collar  manufacturer 
was  that  shirts  and  collars  could  not  be  advertised  in  the 
same  advertisement.  Giving  to  both  the  collars  and  the 
shirts  the  same  brand  name  seemed  to  lead  inevitably  to 
the  step  of  advertising  them  together,  because  they  were 
associated  in  the  minds  of  everyone,  and  could  be  worn 
together  and  shown  together  in  the  same  advertisement 
without  any  additional  design. 

This  suggestion  of  the  advertising  agent  was  one  that 
affected  the  manufacture,  the  branding  and  the  sale  of 
the  goods,  making  all  of  those  departments  more  efficient, 
while  at  the  same  time  doubling  the  advertising  power  of 
each  advertisement.  The  same  amount  of  space  used 
to  advertise  the  collars  separately  Avas  now  ample  to 
advertise  both  collars  and  shirts.  All  of  the  advertising 
prestige  that  had  been  put  upon  the  brand  name  for 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE      101 

the  collar  was  taken  over  by  the  shirts  without  any  Iohh 
or  disadvantage. 

§7 

This  policy  which  grew  out  of  recommendations  for 
(he  best  advertising  plan  was  largely  the  material  used 
in  building  up  the  business  of  this  collar  house  to  its 
present  large  proportions. 

Work  of  this  kind  is  not  advertising  pure  and  simple, 
but  it  is  work  that  the  advertising  man  finds  it  necessary 
to  do  in  order  to  .shape  the  proposition  for  presentation 
to  the  public  in  the  best  way. 

Investigations  of  this  kind  show  that  a  great  many 
apparent  trade  prejudices  are  not  so  deep-rooted  as  they 
seem;  that  a  good  policy  persistently  persevered  in  and 
backed  up  by  intelligent  advertising  will  change  a  great 
many  habits,  both  of  the  dealer  and  the  consumer. 

Right  in  line  with  this  is  another  service  performed 
by  an  advertising  agent,  a  thing  upon  which  very  few 
business  houses  would  dream  of  asking  an  agent's  help. 

Whenever  a  physician  wi.shes  to  be  very  sure  that  a 
prescription  is  filled  with  absolutely  pure  drugs  he 
writes  the  name  ''Squibb"  upon  the  prescription. 
"Squibb"  is  the  name  of  an  old,  responsible  and  well- 
known  house  manufacturing  drugs.  To  the  presidency 
of  that  house  was  elected  a  man  who  appreciated  the 
advantage  even  to  such  a  well-established  business  as 
E.  R.  Squibb  &  Sons  of  attention  to  such  details  as  the 
bottles  and  labels  used  by  his  house.  This  enlightened 
president  went  to  an  advertising  agent  and  asked  for 
help  in  selecting  a  trade-mark,  making  an  appropriate 
style  of  label  and  selecting  a  style  of  bottle  to  become 
standard  with  his  house. 


192      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

The  agency  experimented  with  various  sizes  and  shapes 
and  colors  of  glass  bottles  and  other  containers,  and 
labels  of  various  sizes,  shapes  and  colors,  and  varieties 
of  type  and  design.  It  made  numerous  drawings  of 
various  trade-marks.     As  a  final  result  the  president  of 


OUNCE 

F!8Jii)!e,  S?8S 


s^: 


Squibb  Bottle 


this  company  selected  a  bottle,  label  and  trade-mark  for 
which  he  paid  nearly  five  hundred  dollars,  representing 
all  of  the  cost  of  all  the  investigation  and  experiment 
that  had  been  necessary  to  produce  the  best  possible 
bottle,  the  best  possible  trade-mark  and  the  best  possible 
label. 

Two  things  stick  out  of  this  instance.  One  is  the 
wisdom  of  a  president  of  such  a  conservative  house  as 
manufacturing  chemists  in  going  to  experts  for  such 
work,  and  the  other  the  versatility  of  agency  service 
which  takes  such  a  commission  as  part  of  the  regular 
day's  work. 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE      193 

§  8 

The  American  Felt  Company  is  a  group  of  felt  fac- 
tories man u fart uriiif^  felt  for  t-vrry  fonrcivabie  purpose. 
The  ramilications  of  this  business  are  fascinating.  There 
are  115  different  manufacturing  businesses  which  buy 
this  company's  felt  as  raw  material.  The  business  itself, 
while  in  no  sense  a  trust,  is  an  aggregation  of  a  number 
of  factories  and  mills. 

A  new  sales  manager  with  modern  idea-s  appreciated 
the  advantage  of  a  basic  trade-mark  for  felt  made  by 
this  company,  no  matter  for  what  purpo.se  it  was  made 
or  to  what  process  of  manufacture  it  was  applied. 

So  this  sales  numager  of  the  American  Felt  Company 
went  to  an  advertising  agent  and  a.sked  for  a  trade- 
mark— sometiiing.  unfortunately,  which  a  house  of  this 
kind  seldom  does.  Most  manufacturers  think  a  trade- 
mark is  something  that  can  be  far  better  nmdc  at  home, 
and  a  trade-mark  is  usually  the  product  of  the  president 
or  the  office  boy,  or  both. 

The  American  Felt  Company  realized  that  a  trade- 
mark should  be  selected  with  an  eye  to  every  possible 
use  because  after  being  used  long  enough  to  become  a 
valuable  a.s.set  to  the  company  it  would  be  too  late  to 
change  it  if  it  were  not  satisfactory. 

The  advertising  agency  which  designed  the  trade-mark 
followed  a  line  of  reasoning  something  like  this:  The 
trade-mark  must  be  distinctive  and  individual;  it  ought 
to  be  related  to  the  manufacture  of  felt;  it  must  be 
considered  not  only  as  applied  to  printed  matter,  to  busi- 
ness stationery  and  to  all  kinds  of  labels;  it  must  be 
considered  also  as  something  that  can  be  reproduced 
on  felt. 

Lingering  somewhere  in  the  mind  of  this  advertising 


194      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

agent  was  an  old  story  of  the  origin  of  felt.  The  legend 
ran  something  like  this:  that  in  early  days  the  monks 
on  their  pilgrimages  to  various  sacred  shrines,  suffering 
from  corns  and  blisters  from  walking  in  their  crude 
sandals,  used  to  pull  out  a  handful  of  wool  from  a  pass- 
ing flock  of  sheep  and  put  it  in  their  sandals  to  make 
them  easier  on  the  feet.  One  such  monk  discovered  that 
the  pressure  of  the  foot  walking  on  the  wool  had  felted 
it  into  a  fabric  which  he  found  it  difficult  to  pull  apart, 
and  thus  the  felting  power  of  wool  was  discovered  and 
felt  invented. 

§9 

This  incident  was  put  into  the  form  of  an  old  chron- 
icle, and  made  into  a  booklet  to  be  used  as  a  piece  of 
advertising  matter  for  the  purpose  of  impressing  the 
new  trade-mark  upon  the  trade.  Here  is  the  booklet  in 
full: 

The  Origin  of  Felt — A  Twelfth  Century  Miracle 

It  came  to  pass  in  the  pleasant  land  of  France,  in  the 
days  of  Robert  the  Devil,  that  a  certain  monk  dwelt  in  the 
city  of  Caen,  whose  name  was  St.  Feutre. 

Now  this  monk  for  his  sins  felt  called  upon  to  make  the 
pilgrimage  to  the  Shrine  of  St.  Michel-in-Peril-of-the-Sea, 
which  is  on  a  mount  placed  in  the  ocean  not  far  from  the 
good  village  of  Pontorson.  So  this  monk  set  forth  from 
the  Abbey  aux  Hommes  which  had  been  founded  as  a  re- 
ligious house  by  William  the  Conqueror  in  expiation  for  his 
sins  inasmuch  as  his  marriage  to  Matilda  was  displeasing  to 
Heaven.  He  started  upon  the  morning  of  a  bright  day,  with 
staff  in  hand,  his  robe  girded  around  him,  the  cockle-shells 
in  his  cap,  and  a  new  pair  of  sandals  on  his  feet  just  turned 
out  by  the  brother-cobbler  of  the  Abbey. 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE      Ids 

Now  it  was  at  the  season  of  the  year  when  but  few  pil- 
grims are  wendinc:  their  way  toward  the  west  coast,  so  that 
St.  Feutre  had  the  road  t«>  himself,  and  thoujrh  he  set  out 
blithely  each  mom  he  was  much  wearied  at  nijfht  when  he 
arrived  at  the  inn  or  reli^ous  house  where  he  was  to  sleep, 
and  his  feet  were  sore  and  worn  by  token  that  his  sandals 
were  new  and  his  feet  uncased  to  them,  and  as  he  waiketl  on 
he  thoujrht  to  himself  that  each  step  taken  in  his  new  san- 
dals was  a  i)art  of  the  penance  that  he  was  doing  for  many 
sins,  of  which  he  hoped  to  be  relieved  when  he  reached  the 
shrine  of  holy  St.  Michel.  But  at  times,  as  the  way  waxed 
long,  he  felt  that  his  penance  was  more  than  he  could  bear. 
From  time  to  time  on  his  tedious  journey,  he  pas.sed  flocks 
of  sheep  being  driven  by  the  shepherds  to  the  nearest  mar- 
ket towns,  and  he  wondered  within  his  heart  whether  it  wouhl 
be  displeasing  to  God  if  he  should  reach  out  his  haiul  and 
pluck  a  handful  of  wool  from  tlic  backs  of  the  passing  sheep 
and  put  the  wool  in  his  sandals  for  his  feet  to  tread  upon, 
and  thus  ea.se  the  soreness  which  his  feet  had  taken  from 
the  shoes. 

And  as  he  thus  comnunied  with  himself  it  came  to  him 
that  he  would  ask  God  to  bless  the  action  and  vouchsafe  a 
miracle  to  him  that  it  had  not  been  unfitting  and  he  should 
thus  make  his  pilgrimage  more  easy  to  his  feet. 

And  so  he  plucked  from  the  backs  of  the  passing  flocks 
of  sheep,  not  one,  but  several  handfuls  of  the  wool,  which  he 
placed  upon  the  soles  of  his  shoes  to  his  great  comfort,  and 
then  he  proceeded  upon  his  journey,  and  lo!  at  the  end  of 
the  fifteenth  day  he  annved  at  the  Island  of  Mount  St. 
Michel,  and  as  he  stood  before  the  Shrine  of  St.  Aubert  the 
miracle  was  vouchsafed  to  him,  for  he  pulled  off  his  sandals 
and  in  the  bottom  of  each  was  a  new  cloth,  unknown  before, 
finn  of  texture,  soft  to  the  touch  and  strong,  made  from  the 
wool  of  the  sheep,  tramped  down  by  the  daily  footsteps  of 
the  pilgrim.  The  miracle  had  been  performed,  and  thus  was 
the  American  Felt  Company  made  possible  in  our  day.  So 
this  mark  has    been    made    and    established    to    signify    the 


196      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

products  of  this  Company,  in  memory  of  St.  Feutre  and  his 
miracle. 

Whether  this  legend  was  apocryphal  or  not,  it  made 
no  difference  as  far  as  furnishing  a  good  starting-point 
for  designing  "an  appropriate  trade-mark  for  the  Ameri- 
can Felt  Company.  A  simple  but  illuminating  drawing 
was  made  showing  a  sandaled  foot  in  the  act  of  walking, 

AmericanFelt 
Company 

TR  ADE^^^^  MARK 


American  Felt  Co.  Trade-mark. — A  combination  of  name  and 
trade-mark,  the  grouping  of  which  is  intended  to  be  character- 
istic of  all  the  printed  matter  and  advertising  of  this  company. 

surrounded  by  a  circle,  and  this  has  been  adopted  as  the 
trade-mark  of  the  American  Felt  Company. 

It  is  just  as  good  a  trade-mark  for  every  purpose 
without  the  interesting  and  picturesque  associations  with 
the  old  legend,  but  the  old  legend  gives  it  a  background 
to  help  it  linger  in  the  memory. 


§  10 

Many  a  house  creates  a  trade-mark  as  carelessly  as  it 
would  wave  a  wand.     This  trade-mark  has  become  a 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE     197 

valuable  assot  just  about  the  time  that  it  deinouKtrates 
its  worthlessness  for  the  purpose  of  a  flexible,  a<iaptable, 
easily  identified  trademark.  The  manufacturer  in  touch 
with  this  new  method  of  K«'tting  at  the  facts  before  act- 
ing— in  other  words,  of  looking  around  before  he  leaps 
very  far — has  a  trade -mark  designed  after  research  and 
study  and  experiment,  so  as  to  anticipate  all  future 
objections  and  to  meet  all  future  conditions.  Such  a 
trade-mark  becomes  a  much  more  valuable  asset.  It 
has  in  it  the  qualities  that  every  trade-mark  should  have 
but  which  very  few  do  have. 

It  is  hard  to  describe  in  a  few  words  what  this  new 
department  in  the  development  of  advertising  is.  It  has 
not  been  named.  Its  range  is  very  wide.  It  may  antici- 
pate a  new  fa.shion  in  women's  clothes  wliich  will  make 
the  petticoat  ob.solete,  or  it  may  be  interested  iji  finding 
out  just  what  effect  the  Parcel  Post  laws  will  have  on 
the  distribution  of  a  commodity.  It  is  just  as  anxious 
to  know  whether  the  wife  of  the  general  storekeeper  is 
illiterate  as  it  is  to  know  the  relation  of  the  rent  of  a 
store  to  the  number  of  human  feet  that  pass  it  daily. 

The  broad  manufacturing,  sales  and  advertising  prob- 
lems of  a  manufacturer  are  accepted  by  these  new  de- 
partments of  investigation  in  the  .same  way  that  a 
chemist  accepts  an  unknown  mixture  to  be  re-solved  into 
its  original  elements;  in  the  same  way  that  an  engineer 
accepts  the  problem  of  the  breaking  strain  of  a  given 
kind  of  material;  in  the  same  way  that  an  electrician 
goes  about  it  to  find  the  number  of  ohms  resistance  a 
certain  size  of  copper  wire  will  develop. 

This  new  handmaiden  of  advertising  does  not  start 
out  to  prove  a  previously  determined  thing.  She  starts 
out  to  find  conditions  as  they  are,  so  that  the  advertising 
plan  can  be  adapted  to  those  conditions. 


198      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

The  old  advertising  assumed  a  certain  thing  was  so 
and  conducted  itself  accordingly.  The  new  advertising 
assumes  nothing  and  operates  over  a  previously  con- 
structed roadbed  ballasted  with  facts. 

A  given  formula  does  not  always  yield  a  given  re- 
action. The  human  element  must  be  allowed  for.  Scien- 
tific advertising  may  and  does  have  that  exactness  of 
operation  found  in  a  railroad  fully  equipped  with  safety 
devices,  automatic  brakes  and  block  signals.  The  human 
element  is  reduced  to  narrower  limits,  but  it  must  be 
reckoned  with. 

One  department  deals  with  the  statistics  of  stores  and 
shops,  what  goods  are  sold  and  how,  the  proportion  of 
each  kind,  the  profits  on  each,  the  average  profit  expected 
by  the  proprietors,  the  area  reached,  the  size  of  towns  in 
which  they  are  located  and  the  shopping  habits  of  the 
people  who  buy. 

Another  phase  deals  with  the  operation  of  the  human 
mind,  what  makes  an  impression  on  it  and  how  the 
mind  works  under  a  given  impression. 

Another  deals  with  the  systematic  handling  of  goods 
in  a  factory,  from  the  raw  material  to  the  shipped  prod- 
uct, simplifying  the  making  and  selling  of  goods  so 
that  the  advertising  can  confine  itself  to  a  shorter  and 
more  direct  story. 


11 


Here  we  have  then  in  advertising  the  same  progress 
as  shown  by  the  older  professions.  The  practice  of  medi- 
cine has  its  roots  deeply  planted  in  superstition,  igno- 
rance and  credulity.  The  old  remedies  had  no  relation  to 
the  disease  whatever  and  were  administered  haphazard. 
Coming  down  through  the  ages,  medicine  has  come  to 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE      199 

be  based  moro  and  iiioro  on  actual  conditions  of  life  until 
in  its  highest  expression  to-day  the  doctor  simply  K<'n<ls 
the  sick  man  back  to  nature  and  tells  him  to  get  well  in 
nature's  own  way. 

And  so  advertising,  used  first  to  exploit  (juacks.  charla- 
tans, patent  medicines  and  other  questionable  articles, 
has  gone  through  many  throes  and  many  theories  in  its 
attempt  to  find  itself.  It  is  now  going  hack  to  the  laws 
of  the  human  mind,  the  laws  of  supply  and  demand,  the 
natural  channels  of  trade,  the  shopping  habits  of  women. 
In  the  process  it  has  had  injected  into  it  some  of  the  new 
ethics  of  business  which  are  erasing  the  old  Honum  warn- 
ing, caveat  emptor,  and  accepting  the  full  personal  re- 
sponsibility for  the  manufacturer  who  has  now  become 
the  seller,  and  to  whom  jobber  and  dealer  are  units  in 
a  system  of  laying  liis  goods  before  the  public. 

It  is  partly  because  the  nuinufacturer  has  demanded 
better  grounds  for  his  advertising  plan,  and  partly  be- 
cause the  advertising  man,  ambitious  to  develop  a  surer 
method,  has  neglected  no  field  of  research,  that  this 
present,  more  scientific  method  of  basing  advertising 
upon  the  real  facts,  whatever  they  are.  wherever  they 
may  be  found,  has  come  into  its  own. 


§  12 

This  outline  shows  the  logical  steps  of  the  manufac- 
turer who  plans  to  market  a  new  product  by  advertising. 
The  first  five  subdivisions  cover  the  new  field  of  work 
w^hich  the  advertising  man  has  made  his  own. 

1,  Investigation  of  marketing  possibilities  or  distri- 

bution 

2.  Investigation  of  trade  attitude 


200      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

3.  Lining-up  of  obstacles  and  plans  for  their  elimi- 

nation 

4.  The  name 

a.  Description  of  the  article 

b.  Easily  pronounced 

c.  Easily  remembered 

d.  Capable  of  being  protected 

5.  The  package 

a.  Its  design,  shape  and  general  appearance  with 

due  regard  to  its  display  effect  in  stores  and 
its  appeal  to  purchasers 

b.  Its  practicability  and  cost 

c.  Its  advertising  value 

6.  The  advertising  plan 

a.  As  it  affects  the  traveling  man 

b.  As  it  affects  the  jobber 

c.  As  it  affects  the  dealer 

d.  As  it  affects  the  store  salesman 

e.  As  it  affects  the  consumer 

f.  As  it  affects  competing  goods 

7.  The  general  sales  plan 

a.  Fitting  it  to  conditions 

b.  Tying  it  up  with  the  advertising 

8.  The  media 

a.  Their  selection 

b.  Their  cost 

c.  The  spaces  to  use 

9.  The  appropriation 

a.  Its  size 

b.  Its  apportionment 

10.     The  copy  • 

a.  The  argument:  The  salesmanship  in  type 

b.  The    illustrations,    designs   and   typography: 

compelling  attention 


THE  ADVERTISING  RENAISSANCE     201 

11.     The  proving  up 

Seeing  that  the  many  parts  dovetail  and  work  to- 
gether harnioniou.sly  and  therefore  effec- 
tively 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE    CEEATIVE    WOEK    OE    ADVEETISING 

§1 

It  has  been  intimated  at  various  places  in  this  book 
that  advertising  is  produced  by  a  combination  of  two 
very  different  kinds  of  ability.  One  is  the  work  of  the 
statistical,  bookkeeping,  exact  mind.  It  investigates,  col- 
lects statistics,  studies  trade  relations,  lists  mediums,  esti- 
mates space,  lays  out  printing,  engraving  and  electro- 
typing,  measures  billboards  and  painted  signs,  makes  up 
mail  lists,  checks  up  insertions  and  makes  out  bills. 
Such  work  is  within  reach  of  any  good  business  mind, 
and  can  be  learned  by  any  competent,  assiduous  man. 

That  part  of  advertising  which  finds  expression  in  the 
plan,  and  then  in  the  copy  which  executes  the  plan,  is 
more  or  less  creative  and  presupposes,  in  addition  to 
experience,  a  certain  touch  of  temperamental  adapta- 
bility. It  is  creation  in  the  sense  that  writing  a  book, 
or  painting  a  picture,  or  modeling  a  statue  is  creation. 
It  requires  common  sense,  shrewdness  and  imagination. 
Therefore,  it  is  naturally  the  most  fascinating  part  of 
advertising  work,  and  at  the  same  time  the  most  difficult. 
It  is  in  this  field  that  the  psychologist  has  found  his 
part  in  advertising  work.  The  psychologist  studies  the 
processes  of  the  normal  human  mind  and  deduces  from 
those  processes  the  kind  and  character  of  advertising 
which  will  appeal,  influence  and  create  action.    The  ob- 

202 


CRKATIVK  WORK  OF  ADVKU'riSINC,      UiV.i 

ieet  of  all  adverlisiiif;  is  to  stirmilati'  tlu*  drsiro  to  Iniy. 
The  most  that  intt'Ilip*nt  iiuTchandisinfj  has  bi'cn  able 
to  do  is  to  see  that  the  poods  are  easily  aeeessiblc  when 
the  desire  to  buy  has  been  created. 

It  is  eharacteristie  of  advi-rtisinj;  that  many  men  have 
done  intuitively  the  ri};ht  thinj;  without  knowledfje  ot 
psyeholofry.  just  as  numy  artists  instinctively  pnxlucc  a 
good  painting:,  though  unable  to  tell  how  or  why  they 
do  it.  No  amount  of  study  of  psycholojjy  will  mak«'  a 
good  advertisin«r  man  out  of  one  who  has  not  a  certain 
feeling  for  the  work,  any  more  than  a  .study  of  pro.sody 
and  versification  wil'  nmke  a  poet. 

While  the  preparation  of  tlie  plan  and  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  copy,  which  expres.ses  that  plan  visibly,  may 
be  the  work  of  two  different  men,  or  two  different  .sets 
of  men,  some  of  the  qualities  of  each  are  found  in  both. 
To  borrow  an  analogy  from  another  art:  The  architect 
makes,  first,  perspective  sketches;  then  elevations,  then 
ground  plans,  and  finally  detailed  plans.  Then  the 
builder  translates  these  plans  into  stone  and  brick  and 
mortar  and  wood  and  iron,  and  the  result  is  a  hous<'. 
The  plan  man  of  an  agency  works  with  the  raw  material 
of  advertising  in  the  same  way.  He  thinks  of  the  m<'(li- 
ums  and  who  reads  them.  He  considers  how  large  a 
space  is  needed  both  to  attract  attention  and  convey  the 
story  he  has  to  tell,  and  how  that  space  should  be  treated 
to  compel  attention,  while  at  the  .same  time  it  gets  over 
what  he  must  say.  He  has  before  him  a  mental  picture 
of  the  procession  of  advertisements  as  they  will  march 
through  the  selected  mediums  before  the  eyes  of  tin* 
public,  and  the  successive  and  cumulative  effect  of  which 
will  be  to  add  a  new  instinct  or  a  new  association  of  ideas 
to  the  complex  set  already  possessed  by  the  average 
human  being. 


204      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

It  is  instinctive  now  for  anyone  hearing  a  telephone 
bell  to  jump  up  and  answer  it.  Before  the  days  of  tele- 
phone bells  this  ringing  would  have  passed  unheeded. 
It  is  education  that  has  produced  the  instinct — this  feel- 
ing that  a  telephone  must  be  answered.  So  an  adver- 
tiser may  exploit  a  shoe  by  its  trade-marked  name  until 
that  name  suggests  ' '  shoes, ' '  and  until  ' '  shoes ' '  suggests 
that  name,  so  that  when  the  time  comes  the  man  who 
needs  shoes  cannot  think  of  ''shoes"  without  instantly 
coupling  it  with  the  name  of  the  advertised  shoe.  The 
advertising  goes  even  further  than  this.  It  will  so 
reach  a  man  that  he  will  think  of  shoes  more  often,  will 
be  inspired  to  buy  more  frequently,  and  will  gradually 
be  coaxed  and  coerced  and  bullied  and  argued  into  buy- 
ing more  shoes  than  he  bought  before,  always  buying  the 
shoes  with  the  name  of  which  he  is  most  familiar. 


§2 

Now,  how  is  this  effect  worked  out  in  the  plan  and 
afterwards  put  into  the  advertising  copy  ? 

First,  an  analysis  is  made  of  all  the  selling  points  of 
the  article  to  be  sold.  Selling  points  are  the  arguments 
by  which  a  customer  is  induced  to  buy.  By  rigid  com- 
parison of  these  selling  points  with  the  selling  points  of 
competing  articles,  it  will  be  found  that  some  of  them 
must  be  eliminated  because  they  are  not  exclusive,  or  if 
they  cannot  be  eliminated,  they  must  be  presented  so  as 
to  have  an  apparent  advantage.  This  process  of  elimi- 
nation, however,  may  show  that  there  are  one  or  two 
points  which  are  peculiar  to  the  chosen  article  and 
which  cannot  be  exploited  equally  well  by  competitors, 
or  better  still — and  here  is  one  of  the  most  ingenious 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      205 

pliasfs  of  advertising — a  fictitious  advanta^^c  may  be 
creati'd  whicli,  clovt'rly  pn'sonted  by  picture  and  text, 
will  in  time  become  a  real  one.  Hy  "fictitious  advan- 
tage" is  meant  simply  a  prejudice  in  the  minds  of  the 
public  in  favor  of  one  article. 

The  name  "Tiffany"  on  a  box  adds  a  halo  to  its  con- 
tents that  enhances  in  the  mind  of  the  purchaser  the 
quality  of  the  poods.  It  is  true  that  the  Tiffany  pro<i- 
ucts  are  excellent  in  design  and  quality,  but  so  are  the 
products  of  some  similar  houses.  The  Tiffany  atmos- 
phere has  been  gained  by  years  of  conscientious  service, 
and  gives  to  its  products  a  preeminence  which,  while 
valuable  to  the  house,  and  legitimate,  and  utterly  fair  to 
the  purchaser,  still  gives  to  the  Tiffany  goods  a  credit 
that  is  not  warranted  by  the  difference  between  Tif- 
fany's silver  and  the  silver  of  other  equally  high-grade 
houses.  The  object  of  most  advertisers  is  to  obtain  this 
result. 

An  instance  of  creation  of  atmosphere  in  regard  to 
an  article  is  well  illustrated  by  the  advertising  of  the 
Pierce-Arrow  Motor  Car.  The  Pierce-Arrow  belongs 
in  the  class  of  high-priced  cars.  It  does  not  compete 
with  any  car  that  sells  for  less  than  five  thousand 
dollai-s.  In  its  own  class  there  are  perhaps  a  dozen 
cars. 

Now  if  the  Pierce-Arrow  had  invited  comparison 
along  the  obvious  mechanical  construction  of  a  car,  as 
was  the  popular  method  of  advertising  when  automobile 
advertising  began,  the  decision  of  the  public  would  have 
been  a  decision  based  upon  a  preference  for  certain  me- 
chanical applications.  The  far-sighted  manufacturers  of 
the  Pierce-Arrow  car  foresaw  that  mechanical  excellence 
would  be  approached  ultimately  by  all  cars,  and  that  as 
soon  as  this  had  been  attained,  people  would  demand 


I  ^n  Us  new  iypo  of  hody,  wltk  the 
last  traditions  of  horse-drawn  vehicles 
wmllij  abandorxaea,  the  JrlERCE" 
Arrow  Qar  aUdlns  as  a  umi 
the  uLtimale  degree  of  motor  car 
cfficwytcij  ivftick  the  perfection  of 
lis  meclxanical  equipment  rias  Long 
foreshadowed,  wm?  Pierce-Arrow 
7\  Motor  Car  Co..  Buf  fa 


Pierce-Arrow  Ad. — An  attempt  to  enhance  by  the  use  of  hand- 
lettering,  a  designed  border  and  a  striking  and  attractive 
illustration,  the  atmosphere  of  luxury,  comfort  and  smartness 
of  the  car  advertised. 


CREATIVK  WOKK  OF  ADVKRTISING      207 

finish,  beauty  and  luxury ;  that  the  ear  whieh  had  a 
reputation  for  these  thiuf^'s  would  have  a  sli^lit  advan- 
tage over  other  ears  ecjually  (jootl  mechanieally. 

So  the  keynote  of  the  advertising?  was  styU;,  smartness, 
comfort,  luxury.  There  was,  of  eourse,  a  very  broad 
basis  for  this  claim.  The  Pierce-Arrow  Company  early 
employed  arti.sts  and  designers  to  nuike  their  ear  as 
beautifid  as  it  was  satisfactory.  The  interesting  thiiig 
from  the  point  of  view  of  the  creation  of  advertising  is 
the  way  in  which  this  class  atmosphere  was  conveyed  by 
the  advertising — not  so  much  by  what  was  actually  said. 
as  by  what  it  implied,  and  especially  by  the  use  of 
illustrations  of  superior  (juality  rellecting  the  fashion- 
able world  in  which  the  IMerce-Arrow  Car  lived,  moved 
.and  had  its  being.  Not  oidy  was  good  designing 
used,  but  color  was  also  added,  and  the  whole  thing 
worked  up  into  a  series  of  advertisements  utterly 
unlike  any  other  automobile  advertising,  and  as  dis- 
tinct in  style  as  a  painting  by  Sargent,  or  a  bust  by 
Rodin, 

The  creative  work  in  this  advertising  was  the  decision 
that  this  tone  or  keynote  rather  lamely  described  above 
was  the  best  line  for  the  advertising  to  follow,  and  then 
the  selection  of  the  means  for  carrying  it  out.  It  is  hard 
to  give  any  working  fonuula  or  set  of  rules  for  duplicat- 
ing it.  It  is  more  or  less  intuition — tlie  same  intuition 
that  leads  an  artist  to  select  from  his  palette  a  certain 
color  and  put  that  color  in  just  the  right  spot  in  his  pic- 
ture. After  it  has  been  done  one  can  reason  about  it  and 
point  out  basic  laws,  and  show  how  nature  has  taught 
this  thing  and  how  mathematics  has  worked  it  out.  Hut 
no  study  of  .such  laws  antl  such  deductions  will  take  the 
place  of  the  intuitive  feeling  that  it  is  the  right  thing 
to  do. 


£08      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  3 

A  collar,  which  has  gained  wonderful  prestige  as  the 
smart  collar  of  the  young  man,  when  presented  to  its 
advertising  agents  as  a  problem,  was  burdened  with  a 
string  of  talking  points  as  long  as  the  Ten  Command- 
ments. This  collar  had  been  advertised  for  several 
years,  struggling  through  the  pages  of  magazines  and 
newspapers,  weighted  down  with  too  great  a  load  of  good 
'talking  points.  It  was  smothered  under  its  own  ex- 
cellence. 

The  advertising  agents  looked  clear  through  these 
really  good  arguments  at  the  young  man  who  was  going 
to  buy  the  collar,  and  realized  that  to  him  there  was 
only  one  important  question  about  a  collar,  and  that 
question  was:  "Is  it  correct?  Is  it  the  right  thing  to 
wear?"  Having  reached  this  conclusion,  they  promptly 
relieved  the  advertising  of  the  burden  of  many  argu- 
ments which  seemed  paramount  to  the  manufacturer  but 
which  were  negligible  to  the  purchaser,  and  built  the 
campaign  around  the  question  of  style  and  smartness. 
The  best  artists  in  young  men's  attire  were  employed 
to  draw  pictures  of  young  men  correctly  dressed  in  every 
detail,  and  wearing  the  right  collars  for  their  costumes. 
The  collar  with  its  advertising  based  upon  this  diag- 
nosis, and  exploited  with  all  the  skill  of  picture  and 
art  that  could  be  commanded  by  a  liberal  appropria- 
tion, arose  in  seven  years  from  the  collar  of  one-fourth 
of  the  United  States  to  the  collar  of  three-fourths  of 
the  United  States,  or  two  hundred  per  cent,  increase  in 
seven  years. 

This  intuitive  selection  of  the  paramount  talking 
point,  the  headline  argument  in  the  exploitation  of  a 
given  product,  may  be  carried  so  far  that  by  skillful 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      209 

handliiifir  a  (lisaclvantago  may  be  turned  into  an  advan- 
tage, a  victory  snatched  from  defeat. 

A  well-known  talkin«?  maeliine  uses  as  a  part  of  its 
reprotlueer  a  steel  needle  which  wears  down  tlirough 
friction  with  the  record  and  nuist  be  constantly  replaced. 
This  had  been  a  disadvantage  because  its  leading  com- 
petitor controlled  an  imperi.shable  reproducing  point 
which  did  not  have  to  be  replaced.  The  first  manufac- 
turer, instead  of  admitting  defeat  and  accepting  this 
setback,  has  carrietl  on  for  some  years  a  very  ingenious 
campaign  of  advertising  in  which  the  changing  of  the 
needle  is  exploited  as  an  advantage.  He  points  out  that 
different  needles  are  re(juired  for  different  selections;  a 
loud  needle  for  dance  music  and  a  soft  needle  for  the 
more  delicate  instrumental  protluctions,or  for  the  human 
voice.  By  manufacturing  different  needles  for  different 
purposes  he  makes  it  appear  that  the  changing  of  the 
needles  is  not  due  to  the  inability  to  produce  a  permanent 
needle,  but  that  it  is  used  to  give  greater  arti.stic  perfec- 
tion to  the  reproductions.  This  advertising  has  produced 
the  effect  that  he  desires,  and,  instead  of  losing  sales,  he 
actually  gains  them  upon  what  at  first  sight  appeared  to 
be  a  disadvantage. 

These  in.stances  are  not  unique.  The  history  of  ad- 
vertising is  full  of  them.  Another  writer  with  a  different 
set  of  experiences  could  adduce  others. 

The  preparation  of  a  single  advertisement  from  its 
inception  as  one  of  the  units  in  a  well-thought-out  plan 
to  its  appearance  in  the  pages  of  some  medium  may  well 
illustrate  the  preparation  of  copy. 

The  article  to  be  .sold  is  writing  paper.  The  plan 
calls  for  certain  specific  things,  let  us  say:  Illustration, 
display  of  the  name  of  the  writing  paper,  a  showing  of 
the  trade-mark;  all  to  be  confined  within  the  space  of 


210      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

about  41/^  by  T^^  inches  (technically  200  lines  double 
column)  of  women's  publications.  Run  over  in  your 
mind  the  arguments  or  selling  points  for  writing  paper : 
pride,  convenience,  easy  to  write  upon,  the  desire  to 
conform  with  the  usages  of  society.  Is  the  average 
woman  more  influenced  by  the  argument  that  this  writ- 
ing paper  is  stylish,  or  by  the  argument  that  cheap,  care- 
lessly chosen  paper  displays  thoughtlessness  toward  the 
friend  to  whom  the  letter  is  written  ?  Or  to  get  behind 
the  surface  arguments,  what  is  the  reason  that  more 
women  do  not  buy  better  writing  paper?  The  answer 
comes  from  various  sources:  from  the  inner  conscious- 
ness of  the  advertisement  writer,  from  his  friends,  from 
the  manufacturer  of  the  paper,  from  his  salesmen,  from 
the  dealers.  The  opinions  of  all  these  are  considered.  It 
is  decided  that  a  woman  does  not  do  herself  justice  in  her 
writing  paper  from  carelessness  rather  than  ignorance. 
She  thinks  anything  handy  will  "do."  "Please  excuse 
paper;  it's  all  I  had,"  is  easily  written.  Very  well. 
Let  us  make  the  appeal  along  these  lines.  Let  us  start 
each  advertisement  with  an  allusion  to  some  little  breacli 
of  good  form,  such  as  appearing  at  breakfast  with  a 
negligent  toilet,  gesturing  with  knife  and  fork,  remain- 
ing seated  when  an  older  woman  is  presented,  and  point 
out  the  analogy  between  these  oversights  and  that  of 
writing  a  letter  upon  paper  that  does  not  represent  the 
writer's  taste,  means  or  feeling  toward  the  correspond- 
ent. To  make  the  appeal  more  emphatic,  let  the  illus- 
tration show  the  particular  breach  of  good  taste  upon 
which  the  advertisement  is  hung.  This  gives  a  wider 
field  for  illustration  and  brings  a  new  interest  into  the 
advertising.  The  foregoing  does  not  go  deep  enough, 
however,  into  all  the  reasons  that  lead  up  to  the  final 
adoption  of  the  style  described.    Many  obvious  appeals 


IP*«*-VociM-M«y  I. 'I) 


i^  ranes 

Wedainaj:Pdp  ers 

Cr^ncS  Ki*i  Finkh  WVajin,;  I'ijkt  i<  ihc  ^.rin.fjr J.  l>eciuw  its  iurfAce  intl 
icxturt  assurf  the  mr*\T  rffci-tivc  cnRriving,  »nd  briiuv  it  com«  in  ti/rt 
an*l  shi[KN  (hat  nurr  thf  ^JclIun.^^  »j1  pcrs-^ns  bc«  informrd. 

Vmjr  stjtutmr  ijn  wurc  Cranf  *s  Kul  FmkK  WcJJmg  Paper  fof  you. 
<  >nc  o(  the  plc4santrtt  Jufii*^  uf  your  ucdilinf*  jtrciUfation*  it  to  i  isiii  upon  if. 
Write  us  it  then*  is  any  difficulty,  ami  *e  will  tell  you  «hcrc  >uu  can  k«  it. 


Faton,  Crane  Sf  l*ikc  Company 


#^ 


Advertisemknt  of  Crane's  Weddino  I'ai-eks.  A  iiia>.'ii/iiu' adver- 
tisement in  which  the  bareness  of  an  illustration  is  relieveil  by 
designing  appropriate  to  the  quality  of  the  paper  advertised, 
and  which  by  its  balance  and  arrangement  is  strongly  dis- 
played without  being  crude  or  sensational. 


212      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

are  ignored  because  they  have  been  used  so  much  they 
have  lost  their  novelty.  The  ways  in  which  the  use  of 
writing  paper  may  be  illustrated  are  limited  and  have 
all  been  used.  The  appeal  based  on  the  quality  of  the 
paper  is  not  so  strong  with  women  as  with  men.  They 
are  interested  in  its  correctness,  smartness,  good  form. 
No  written  description  can  do  justice  to  the  patient 
raking- over  of  the  subject ;  the  consideration  of  it  from 
every  conceivable  angle ;  the  way  the  mind  and  imagi- 
nation of  the  advertisement  writer  try  and  reject,  trying 
to  confine  the  appeal  to  the  narrow  limits  of  the  space 
allotted  him,  and  at  the  same  time  make  that  impression 
both  telling  and  cumulative.  The  final  form  of  the  ad- 
vertisement is  decided  upon.  It  is  written,  rewritten, 
cut,  edited,  transposed,  and  finally  reads  like  this: 

Curl  Papers  and  Writing  Papers 

What  would  you  think  of  an  otherwise  nice  girl  who 
thoughtlessly  came  down  to  breakfast  with  her  hair  in  curl 
papers? 

You  wouldn't  do  it,  but  do  you  not  often  write  a  letter  upon 
a  hastily  selected,  inappropriate  piece  of  writing  paper  be- 
cause you  have  no  writing  paper  in  the  house  that  does  you 
credit?  You  think  your  friends  overlook  what  is  really  a 
breach  of  good  taste  and  propriety.    But  do  they? 

Highland  Linen 
(the  writing  paper  of  the  household) 

on  your  writing  table,  makes  it  impossible  for  you  to  go  wrong 
on  writing  paper. 

Carelessness  in  regard  to  correspondence  is  just  as  much 
a  breach  of  good  taste  as  carelessness  in  regard  to  personal  ap- 
pearance. You  would  not  commit  the  latter.  Are  you  equally 
thoughtful  about  the  former? 


Illustration  fob  Eaton,  Crane  &  Pike  Curl  Paper  Ad 


gl4      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

All  the  fashionable  sizes.  Nine  beautiful  shades:  white, 
pearl  gray,  Scotch  gray,  Swiss  blue,  harebell,  le  lilas,  old 
rose,  chamois,  acorn.  Sold  wherever  good  stationery  is  sold. 
If  you  cannot  find  such  a  store,  send  10c  to  us  for  samples 
and  name  of  a  dealer  who  will  supply  you.  Highland  Linen 
may  also  be  had  with  attractive  borders  or  gold  beveled  edges. 

Eaton^  Crane  &  Pike  Co. 
Pittsfield,  Mass.  New  York. 

An  artist  is  commissioned  to  illustrate  the  headline 
as  it  is  written,  just  as  he  would  illustrate  a  passage 
from  a  story.  He,  too,  must  apply  his  art  within  strictly 
defined  limits.  Size,  shape  and  proportions  are  all  im- 
perative. The  surroundings  must  show  good  taste  and 
refinement.  The  girl  must  be  pretty  and  well-dressed. 
The  atmosphere  must  suggest  a  girl  who  knows  what  is 
righi  but  is  careless.  The  drawing  must  be  significant, 
eye-catching,  individual.  The  style  should  bear  repro- 
duction and  withstand  the  shortcomings  of  rapid  press- 
work  on  indifferent  paper.  The  result  is  something 
like  the  illustration  on  page  213. 

The  layout  man  now  has  to  assemble  in  one  magazine 
advertisement  the  "copy"  given  above,  the  illustration, 
a  logotype  of  the  name  of  the  goods  which  is  a  style 
adopted  permanently  and  used  on  all  advertising  matter 
as  well  as  on  the  box  of  stationery,  and  finally  a  trade- 
mark. When  he  with  the  aid  of  the  printer  has  finally 
arranged  the  advertisement  the  way  it  will  greet  the  eye 
of  millions  of  possible  customers,  it  looks  like  the  illus- 
tration on  page  215. 

An  even  more  graphic  presentation  of  the  way  a  sell- 
ing campaign  is  built  up  around  a  central  thought  may 
be  shown  by  the  presentation  of  a  complete  campaign 
for  a  door  check. 


Curl  pmpers  and 
writing  papers 

Wliai  would  ytnj  tliiiiL.  oi  an  ixhcruiK 
niic  |>irl  who  (li<>ueti(lc*>lr  tjnic  down 
lo  breakfast  wi(h  her  liair  in  mrl  [opcrs? 

You  wouldn't  dci  it,  but  doyiMi  n<>(  often 
write  a  kitrr  tifon  a  lustily  scUi  ted,  iiuiv 
propri^ic  Jiiecc  of  uriinit;  [uper  bctaiinc 
)'uu  hjvc  no  writing  paper  in  the  hutiw 
that  does  you  credit?  ^im  think  yiKi'r 
friends  mtrltxik  w lut  is  really  a  bn-ach  uf 
good  laMC  iuid  propriety.    But  (k>  they? 


%n 


tGflUND 

UNKN 


(Tm  Wftimo  P«ptft  c*  Tut  H<n>itM>a>l 

on  >uur  wriiinx  tjihle,  wAet  H  tmp<M*ibtc  (or 
y*\t  to  Ko  «^ri>ti)(  on  writing  paper. 

C  jrcir«ftitcu  in  iTKar«i  to  oirropoodcnie  t* 
juU  JS  much  a  hrr»ili  of  )£i.h>(1  l^tir  atiarclrw- 
ntn  in  rrit«rd  to  prrkoru)  appriraiHTc  Voo 
wuuld  n*»i  ti>mmit  iKt  Uitcr.  Are  yoa  etiually 
chnu](hiful  ablaut  the  former? 


«-3A- 


EATON,    CRANE    *    PIKE    CO. 

rtTTSnCLD.  MMfc.  -^  l«W  YOWt 


^ 


Highland  Linex  Ad 


216      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

A  Human  Interest  Campaign  with  a  Real  Underlying  Sell- 
ing Idea. 

"The  Yale  Door  Check  completes  the  door,"  is  the  thought 
behind  the  proposed  campaign  which,  if  successfully  put  over, 
will  make  people  feel  that  a  door  without  a  door  check  is  as 
incomplete  as  a  door  without  a  knob  or  hinges. 

The  argument  is  that  the  primary  function  of  a  door  is  to 
be  closed;  that  when  a  door  is  open  it  is  not  performing  its 
primary  function;  that  the  only  real  door  is  a  closed  door, 
and  that  the  only  thing  that  will  insure  a  door  always  being 
closed  is  a  Yale  Door  Check. 

If  it  were  not  intended  that  doors  should  be  closed,  then 
the  builder  would  simply  have  left  a  hole  in  the  wall. 

The  old  conundrum — "When  is  a  door  not  a  door?" — can  be 
applied  to  this  as  a  deep  basic  truth,  because  a  door  is  not 
a  door  when  it  is  ajar,  and  a  door  that's  ajar  is  a  door  that 
needs  a  door  check. 

The  plan  consists  not  only  of  direct  advertising  to  create 
a  real  demand  for  door  checks  in  the  average  American 
home;  the  same  material  used  differently  is  to  influence  the 
dealer  to  buy  door  checks  and  to  help  sell  them. 

You  will  readily  see  that  this  subject  offers  an  infinite 
variety  of  catchy  ads.  A  great  many  proverbs,  epigrams  and 
other  phrases  can  be  made  for  blotters,  mailing  cards,  win- 
dow cards  and  stickers  of  all  sorts.  For  instance  an  excellent 
mail  series  can  be  made  upon  the  idea  of  the  incomplete 
door,  using  short  stories  illustrated  with  amusing  pictures  of 
various  things  which  are  incomplete  for  the  lack  of  some 
essential,  the  moral  to  be  applied  to  a  door  that  is  incomplete 
for  lack  of  a  door  check. 

We  will  incorporate  this  basic  idea  in  some  slogan,  the  best 
of  which  as  it  occurs  to  us  now  is,  "The  Yale  Door  Check 
completes  the  door."  The  second  choice  is,  "No  door  is  a 
door  without  a  Yale  Door  Check." 

You  must  remember  that  a  great  many  other  ideas  that 
were  once  as  apparent  as  the  idea  that  every  door  demands 


CREATIVK  WORK  OF  ADVKRTISINd      217 

a  door  clicck  have  hwii  su('<«'ssfiilly  put  over  hy  ciliu-ation 
which  is  a  fonii  of  advortisirijr.  or  l)y  advert isiii;:  which  is  a 
fonn  of  education,  until  to-dny  the  i)ublic  feels  that  thcM* 
things  have  been  established  since  time  be-^'an  and  do  not  look 
back  to  the  time  when  they  had  very  difTerent  itieas. 

The  idea  has  several  collateral  lines  in  which  the  human 
interest  can  be  worked  up.  Take,  for  instance,  hunuin  f(»r- 
getfulness — an  aid  to  the  menior>'— the  fact  that  millions  «)f 
people  are  burdened  with  the  responsibility  of  shutting:  doors 
which  they  forjjet,  and  which,  of  coui-se,  has  a  bad  moral 
effect  upon' their  characters;  that  this  burden  should  \)e  lifle<l 
from  them  by  the  little  device  that  never  forirets — the  Yale 
Door  Check;  that  it  is  bad  for  thousands  of  children  to  jrrow 
up  slamming  doors  refrardless  of  other  p(H)ple's  feelinjrs,  and 
that  a  door  check  safely  and  firmly  closing  the  door  is  a 
sort  of  constant  reminder  to  the  child.  There  is  the  idea  of 
service  and  efliciency — the  man  who  fits  his  house  with  good 
plumbing  to  make  his  batiiroom  satisfactory,  who  gets  the 
latest  model  of  gas  range  to  lower  the  cost  of  cooking,  who 
has  garbage  burners  and  who  studies  the  style  of  heater  that 
will  save  coal — that  man  is  not  considering  the  wear  and  tear 
on  his  doors  for  lack  of  an  insurance  in  the  form  of  Yale 
Door  Checks  to  make  those  dooi-s  not  only  i)erform  their  ser\'- 
ice,  but  to  last  better  and  to  free  them  from  the  strain 
of  being  slannned,  or  of  becoming  loose  from  swinging  open 
when  they  should  be  shut. 

All  these  are  side  lines  leading  up  to  tlie  thought  that  a 
door  must  have  a  Yale  Door  Check  to  be  complete. 

This  plan  must  be  sold  to  the  sales  department  as  well  as 
to  the  advertising  dei)artment.  A  salesman  must  talk  to  the 
dealer  and  teach  him  to  talk  to  his  custon)er  in  the  same 
way — that  a  door  inevitably  demands  a  door  check  and  that 
the  best  door  check,  of  coui-se,  is  the  Yale.  The  dealer  nnist 
have  a  Yale  Door  Check  on  his  own  door  and  a  card  calling 
attention  to  it.  He  must  be  supi)lied  with  advertising  matter 
carrying  out  this  same  idea  and  dovetailing  with  the  national 
campaign,  and  he  must  put  himself  in  the  atmosphere  of  it. 


218      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

This  plan  gives  the  thought  of  the  copy  and  some  ways  in 
which  it  can  be  worked  out.  Other  ways  will  develop  as 
time  goes  on. 

The  form  of  the  copy  will  be  shown  by  layout.  Please  note, 
however,  that  each  ad  presents : 

1.  An  illustration  showing  annoyance  or  disadvantage  from 
the  absence  of  a  door  check; 

2.  An  argument  along  the  line  that  a  door  Avithout  a  door 
check  is  not  a  door; 

3.  Cut  of  the  door  check  in  a  circle,  tied  up  with  the  trade- 
mark "Yale"  so  as  to  reproduce  the  circle  trade-mark  com- 
bination we  have  used  so  much  and  help  to  identify  these  ads 
physically  with  previous  advertising. 

This  plan  must  not  only  be  well  sold  to  the  sales  force  of 
the  Yale  Door  Check,  but  it  should  be  well  sold  to  the  dealer. 
The  dealer  should  not  only  feel  the  spirit  and  possibilities  of 
the  campaign;  he  should  be  prepared  to  use  every  piece  of 
advertising  help  that  we  give  him.  The  following  line  should 
be  earnestly  and  persistently  put  up  to  him,  and  he  should 
be  persuaded  to  use  one  or  all  of  these  methods  as  often  as 
possible : 

1.  Advertise  in  his  own  newspapers  to  announce  the  Yale 
Door  Check; 

2.  Send  out  printed  matter  to  every  house-owner  in  town 
advising  door  checks  throughout  the  house; 

3.  Send  out  young  men  to  attach  door  cheeks  to  the 
doors  of  the  houses  of  responsible  customers  on  thirty  days' 
trial ; 

4.  Dress  a  window  with  a  special  Yale  Door  Check  window 
display  furnished  by  Yale  &  Towne; 

5.  Display  the  Post  ad  for  the  week  in  his  window; 

6.  Run  a  street-car  card  in  the  local  street  cars,  furnished 
by  Yale  &  Towne; 

7.  Display  cards  about  the  store; 

8.  Have  the  stock  of  Yale  Door  Checks  especially  attract- 
ively arranged. 

The  sales  plan,  however,  should  lead  up  to  a  climax  about 


Human 
^  Interest 
Campai^on 

Door  uiecks 

-witK  anutider- 


Schedule- 

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^ke  Third  Ai^azine  Ad     f| 


Cmi>Dc>Dr  Check 


t^ 


1 


Ml 


•vl 


^-^fgtltmii 


^/ve  Bcx:»hlets^^^bnsumers^ 

To  be  offered  in  the  ads  an^pa<;9cxi  ait  o^er  the  counter   * 


mark    , 

^  Iwamand 
Jus  Necktie 


^ke  Rrst.Trade  Paper  Ad 

m  which  the  m^zine  idea  is  incDrporated 


lm>  Door  Check 


''4,' 


^Ae  Seooj  id  Trade  Ffeper  Ad 

tyin^  up  with  iheMn^aiticM  cA  game  month 


"cj/te  Th  j  rd  Trade  Paper  A 

:i\\  doi  rig  tea  m-\vork,  vvj  th  Uie  Magazine  Ads 


^Ag  Monthly  Han^r 

which  carries  our  consumer  impression  into  the  store 


^<3he  Monthly  Bbtter 

wliich  carrie9  cursory  on  ihe  biisinesc  mans  <fek 


mGJVbnthlj  Slide       ' 

which  deepens  the  Yale  Door  Check  mpSBSSJon 


and  De^i^ate?  the'KaleDealer 


:jAU'/\uvaj 

\sii.v .,  I.  ,r.  iljn  dealer  wlien  to  b^in  hi«'  Xtasm  work 


It  6oe5  on  the  letter  you  write  tlie  trade 
aird  leJj®  when  the  next  ad  appears .... 

< 

i  •  «T«.».,.;  K- T<ws,-..:  M».,5,<',<,, 

Qur 

Next 

POST 

AD 

JNov.29 
i9M. 

New9paper  Adc  ^  Dealers  1 

wliich  Cfiahle9  tficttt  to  inoke  our  nalkyrai  camp3|ffn  Je»«I     1 


Door  Check 

:        i 


\  


■;ifl  DC 


AYale  "Poor  Trim" 

^iik.  ifue  accerd  on  ihajole 


Tbot^tepsJeadir^  totheDborTrim 

tote  cut  out  aiid  ported  or  steiidiod  ori  the  sidewalk 


Put  this  whole  campaign 
into  portfoliG  form  so  that 
it  can  be  intelligently 
and  logicalJj  explaned  to 
the  dealer  by  - 


—..^ 

^!i 

r/tHu»nan 
Interest 

if 

OoOtCHECte 
u^  an  u^v^- 

'                   ^^i 

Every  Yale  <S  Tbwiie  Saleman 


who  in  order  to  make  this 
campaign  a  success  must9ell 
the  aciverti9ir^  to  the  dealer 
39  well  a9  the  ^ood9. 


get  the  i^t  dealers  crx^eration 
Stick  totfle  9chedu]e  and  the 
nevt^^Ie  ^  Towne  Building 
will  soon  look- like  thi9.    ^ 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      241 

the  first  of  next  November,  which  climax  would  be  known 
as  "Yulo  Door  Check  Week." 

In  addition  to  usinjr  all  of  the  prepared  advertising  matter 
for  the  aid  of  the  dealer,  there  will  be  several  pieces  of  ad- 
vertisiufj  for  this  week  only: 

1.  Two  or  throe  ready-made  ads  for  the  dealer  to  put  him- 
self in  line  with  the  national  campaign,  striking  a  climax 
at  this  point ; 

2.  A  special  window  display  for  the  purpose; 

3.  A  poster  for  use  in  a  special  window  trim  and  else- 
where. 

§4 

A  very  interesting  illustration  of  the  process  of  rea- 
soning by  which  the  really  successful  advertising  man 
seizes  firmly  on  the  one  vital  and  necessary  selling  point 
of  the  article  to  be  exploited,  and  plays  that  up  so  clev- 
erly that  the  buying  public  gets  his  point  of  view,  is  the 
story  of  the  advertising  of  an  essential  ingredient  in  a 
prepared  roofing.  This  story  so  well  illustrates  the  most 
important  thing  in  creative  advertising  that  the  Curtis 
Publishing  Company  used  it  in  one  of  its  own  advertise- 
ments as  a  sort  of  object  lesson  to  advertising  men.  This 
advertisement  states  so  well  the  essential  facts  of  the 
story  that  the  advertisement  is  here  quoted  in  full. 


An  Advertising  Idea  from  Darkest  Africa 

In  England  a  large  proportion  of  all  the  coal  tar  produced 
is  burned  up  as  some  form  of  fuel. 

In  America  95  per  cent,  is  used  in  valuable  manufactures. 
One  way,  at  least,  in  which  the  New  World  is  less  wasteful 
than  the  Old. 

In  one  of  these  valuable  uses  of  coal  tar  there  is  a  story 


242      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

— a  story  that  takes  us  into  darkest  Africa,  that  gives  us  an 
inspiring  glance  at  the  persistence  of  men  and  a  hint  of  the 
romance  of  business. 

A  certain  firm  manufactured  coal-tar  products.  They  had 
seen  great  industries  made  greater  by  advertising.  They 
thought  there  must  be  some  way  m  which  they  could  employ 
this  force,  but  try  as  'they  might,  they  could  not  see  just 
how.     So  they  called  in  an  advertising  man. 

He  asked  how  coal  tar  was  used. 

"One  thing,"  they  said,  "is  for  making  tar  and  gravel 
roofs — the  kind  of  roof  you  had  on  the  ell  back  home." 


What  the  Problem  Was 

These  roofs,  he  found,  are  made  with  coal-tar  pitch  and  felt. 
They  cannot  be  bought  ready  to  lay  like  prepared  roofings, 
but  must  be  laid  "on  the  job"  by  a  local  builder  or  roofer. 
Right  there  was  disclosed  one  reason  why  this  firm  ought  to 
be  in  touch  with  the  public  through  advertising. 

There  was  no  accepted  standard  method  for  laying  roofs. 
You  can  lay  a  poor  roof  that  will  look  and  act  all  right  until 
after  the  weather  has  had  a  chance  at  it.  The  result  was 
that,  either  through  skimping  or  through  mere  lack  of  skill, 
many  roofs  did  not  last  very  well. 

This  bad  two  bad  effects: 

First,  owners  of  houses  and  buildings  did  not  get  as  good 
roofs  as  they  should. 

Second,  good  roofing  materials  were  not  being  used  as 
freely  as  they  should  be,  which  hurt  business. 

The  advertising  man  packed  his  bag  and  took  the  train 
for  the  West.  During  the  next  two  months  he  interviewed 
about  500  builders,  architects,  dealers  and  workmen.  He  came 
back — with  no  recommendation.  It  looked  hopeless — to  ad- 
vertise something  that  could  not  be  sold  all  ready  for  use,  but 
which  must  be  mixed  with  other  ingredients  and  spread  out 
on  top  of  a  building  by  a  third  party. 


CHEATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVEUTISING      2i3 

How  the  Inspiration  Came 

Soon  after,  this  advertising  man  was  taken  ill  with  a 
malarial  fever.  After  he  had  tried  all  sorts  of  remedies  with- 
out success,  a  doctor  fjave  him  a  certain  prescription.  It  was 
filled  at  a  drug-store  round  the  corner,  and  it  cure<i  him. 
Bt'iug  of  an  iiuiuiring  mind,  ho  asked  what  was  in  the  pre- 
scription.    The  doctor  said : 

"When  Henry  M.  Stanley  went  into  Africa  to  find  Living- 
stone, his  men  were  attacked  right  and  left  by  fevers.  The 
physician  in  the  party,  whose  job  was  to  fight  these  fevers, 
was  a  Dr.  Warburg.  By  experiment  after  experiment,  under 
the  pressure  of  necessity,  he  finally  worked  out  a  certain 
specific,  made  up  of  a  number  of  standard  drugs.  After  he 
had  returned  to  civilization  he  did  what  the  ethics  of  his 
profession  demanded.  lie  gave  his  secret  freely  to  the  world. 
It  was  accepted  by  medical  science,  and  is  to-day  published 
in  various  standard  works  of  medicine,  and  is  known  by  War- 
burg's name.  Any  doctor  can  write  it,  and  any  druggist  can 
compound  it.     That's  what  cured  you." 

That  night  the  long-sought -for  idea  flashed  on  the  adver- 
tising man. 

"Why,"  he  asked  himself,  "shouldn't  there  be  a  recognized 
prescription  for  tar  and  gravel  roofs,  which  any  owner  or 
architect  can  specify  and  any  roofer  can  carry  out,  buying 
his  materials  from  any  builder?  With  the  right  speciucation 
honestly  followed,  roofs  would  be  laid  right." 


How  They  Worked  It  Out 

He  took  the  plan  to  the  manufacturers.  They  consulted 
engineers  and  architects.  The  best  methods  and  propor- 
tions of  materials  were  set  down  in  black  and  white. 
And.  with  some  hesitation,  they  began  to  advertise.  What 
they  decided  to  advertise  was  not  their  own  materials, 
but   a  method,   a  specification   for  laying  roofs.     Their  own 


244      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

firm  was  so  large  that  they  could  afford  to  promote  the 
whole  coal-tar  industry,  and  let  competitors  reap  a  share  of 
the  advantage. 

The  first  advertising  was  done  in  trade  and  technical  papers, 
to  reach  architects  and  engineers,  and  in  The  Saturday  Even- 
ing Post  and  one  other  general  medium,  to  reach  consumers. 
Circulars  and  other  mail  matter  were  also  sent  to  architects 
and  builders. 

Scientific  and  progressive  men  are  quick  to  adopt  a  plan 
based  on  scientific  methods.  They  tried  the  specification,  and, 
finding  that  it  produced  better  and  longer-lasting  roofs,  used 
it  again  and  again.  And  the  layman  was  gradually  educated 
to  ask  for  that  kind  of  roof  on  his  construction. 


What  Were  the  Results 

The  increase  in  the  demand  for  the  goods  was  so  noticeable 
that  methods  were  worked  out  for  advertising  other  uses  of 
coal  tar,  one  by  one.  This  year  that  same  firm  is  investing  in 
advertising  to  the  extent  of  twenty  times  its  original  appro- 
priation, and  is  getting  its  money's  worth. 

Let  us  see,  then,  what  national  advertising  accomplished  in 
this  instance: 

First,  it  corrected  a  condition  in  an  industry  which  was 
suffering  because  of  the  misuse  of  its  product.  » 

Second,  it  found  a  way  to  make  sure  that  owners  of  build- 
ings should  get  good  tar  and  gravel  roofs  instead  of  poor 
ones. 

Third,  it  greatly  increased  the  use,  for  an  economical  and 
beneficial  purpose,  of  a  product  which  in  England,  for  ex- 
ample, is  generally  burned  up  as  fuel. 

Does  not  this  show  how  advertising  can  be  of  true  eco- 
nomic service  to 

(1)  the  business  man 

(2)  you,  the  consumer,  and 

(3)  the  whole  American  public? 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      246 

Such  tilings  as  these  have  to  do  with  the  preparation 
of  the  plan  as  distinct  from  the  preparation  of  the  copy. 
The  plan,  in  addition  to  many  other  things  which  sug- 
gest the  scope  of  the  campaign,  gives  the  tone  of  the 
copy,  the  constant  goal  to  which  it  is  tending. 


§5 

It  is  up  to  the  copy  man,  the  point  of  attack  having 
been  determined,  to  present  this  leading  point  as  skill- 
fully as  possible,  present  it  in  a  way  that  will  lay  hold 
of  the  imagination  of  the  reader,  present  it  in  a  way 
that  its  full  value  will  be  present  at  the  time  of  pur- 
chase, and  at  the  same  time  to  disguise  that  presenta- 
tion by  picture  and  text  so  that  the  advertisement  will  be 
irresistibly  attractive  and  intrinsically  interesting. 

Of  course  he  does  not  confine  himself  altogether  to 
this  one  central  point.  He  avoids  monotony.  He  dresses 
up  the  advertisement  with  illustrations  and  other  eye- 
catchers.  He  writes  the  copy  with  the  sole  purpose  of 
making  the  reader  as  enthusiastic  as  he  is  about  the 
article  advertised. 

Writing  advertising  bears  some  resemblance  to  the 
preparation  of  a  news  article.  A  well-edited  newspaper 
gives  in  the  headlines  all  the  facts  of  the  story  that 
follows.  The  first  paragraph  of  the  story  proper  adds 
the  essential  details  that  could  not  be  crowded  into  the 
head.  The  next  few  paragraphs  enlarge  and  amplify 
these.  Each  successive  section  of  the  story  enlarges  the 
preceding  .section.  The  newspaper  reader  can  stop  any- 
where and  get  some  idea  of  the  news.  If  he  wants  more 
information  he  goes  on. 

The  ideal  advertisement  works  the  same  way.     Some 


don't  you  want  a  vote?"  implored  the  sifflFragette 
of  the  hard-working  farmer's  wife. 

"No,  I  don't,"  she  insisted  emphatically.  "If 
there's  any  one  thing  the  men  kin  do  alone,  for 
goodness  sake  let  'em  do  it." 

There  is  a  service  for  smokers  that 

^  United 
Cigar  Stores 

alone  can  give.  Let  them  do  it  for  you.  To  you 
now,  buying  a  cigar  is  either  a  sordid  or  an 
extravagant  transaction.  A  store  within  quick 
reach,  a  cheerful  atmosphere,  a  good  cigar,  a 
profit  shared — these  are  things  the  United  Stores 
alone  can  do. 


United  Cigar  Stores  Ad.- — The  unusual  illustration,  the  big  dis- 
play of  the  first  word,  the  anecdote  leading  into  the  moral,  the 
striking  display  of  the  article  advertised,  the  white  space  and 
the  border  make  an  unusual  eye-catching  effect. 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      247 

one  thing — picture,  display  lino,  the  name  of  the  article 
— sticks  out.  It  is  caught  by  the  most  careless  and  indif- 
ferent reader.  The  second  section  gives  a  few  essential 
details  which  may  be  confmod  entirely  to  the  main  key- 
note of  the  advertising.  The  rest  of  the  advertisement 
is  devoted  to  further  arguments  in  favor  of  the  article, 
suggestions  on  how  it  can  be  used,  information  as  to 
where  it  may  be  obtained,  offer  of  booklet  or  catalog  and 
other  details. 

Thus,  the  advertisement  divides  the  reading  public 
into  three  great  sections:  those  who  merely  grasp  the 
fact  that  such  and  such  a  thing  is  advertised,  those  who 
tarry  long  enough  to  get  at  least  one  general  or  para- 
mount argument  in  favor  of  it,  and  those  who  are  so 
interested  that  they  read  the  entire  advertisement. 
Thus,  if  the  adverti-sement  has  been  properly  prepared, 
none  of  it  is  wasted.  Some  impression  is  protluced  upon 
the  most  casual  reader,  and  the  constant  reiteration  of 
the  name  of  the  article — especially  if  coupled  with  a 
short  sentence  about  it,  which  short  .sentence  is  .sometimes 
known  as  a  slogan  or  catch  phrase — this  constant  reitera- 
tion produces  some  advertising  effect.  Even  those  su- 
perior individuals  who  insist  they  never  read  advertising 
ill  any  form  can  tell  you  the  names  of  twenty  or  thirty 
advertised  articles,  which  names  they  have  uncon.sciously 
absorbed  in  spite  of  themselves,  and  which  names  domi- 
nate their  mental  proces.ses  so  tyrannically  that  "mat- 
tress" suggests  "Ostermoor, "  "grape  juice"  suggests 
"Welch's,"  "collars"  suggest  "Arrow,"  "soap"  sug- 
gests "Ivory,"  and  so  on  down  a  long  catalog. 

Of  course,  this  is  primitive  advertising.  The  advertis- 
ing man  who  accomplished  no  more  than  this  would  still 
be  in  the  kindergarten  clas.s,  but  the  fact  that  this  much 
can  be  accomplished  by  these  methods  gives  to  advertis- 


248      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

ing  a  sufficient  standing-place  for  its  fulcrum  by  which 
it  can  ultimately,  and  by  the  exercise  of  the  more  subtle 
arts  of  advertising,  move  the  whole  public  mind. 


§6 

Clever  advertisements,  the  kind  you  note  and  quote 
and  hand  about — the  "Phoebe  Snows,"  "Spotless 
Towns"  and  "Sunny  Jims" — are  not  necessarily  good, 
and  are  quite  frequently  bad.  The  name  "Uneeda"  is 
vastly  overrated.  That  advertisement  which  makes  you 
realize  you  need  an  overcoat,  tells  you  where  to  get  it, 
satisfies  you  that  the  price  is  right,  and  sends  you  there 
to  get  it,  is  a  clever  advertisement — very  clever,  because 
it  sells  goods. 

Good  advertising  makes  you  wear  Knapp-Felt  Hats, 
Regal  Shoes,  Fownes  Gloves,  Cluett  Shirts  and  Arrow 
Collars;  fills  your  house  with  Tobey  Furniture,  Mc- 
Dougall  Kitchen  Cabinets  and  Standard  Sanitary 
Plumbing;  while  "clever"  advertising  urges  you  not  to 
be  "odd"  in  buying  flour,  tells  you  that  some  whisky 
is  "first  over  the  bars,"  insists  that  its  typewriter  is 
"woven  into  the  fabric  of  business,"  and  asserts  that 
the  maker  of  its  candy  is  the  ' '  Toffee  King. ' ' 

So  you  must  understand  at  the  outset  that  the  ad- 
vertisement writer  is  simply  a  conscientious,  hard-work- 
ing man,  like  your  dentist  or  your  plumber,  and  not  a 
wit,  a  village  cut-up  or  a  wiseacre.  He  does  not  com- 
pete with  Marshall  P.  Wilder  or  George  Bernard  Shaw 
on  the  one  hand,  nor  with  Epictetus  or  Benjamin  Frank- 
lin on  the  other.  He  saturates  himself  with  the  thing 
to  be  advertised,  whether  it  be  a  mattress  or  a  motor 
car,  and  then  he  summons  mentally  before  him  the  kind 


Table  Manners 

Have  lonj;  been  the  final  test  of  good  breeding.  A  woman 
who  WKiikin't  be  careless  in  this  is  sometimes  careless  about 
her  writing  paper.  Are  you  guilty  of  the  impoliteness  of  send- 
ing a  friend  a  letter  which  says  as  plainly  as  writing  paper  can 
say  it  that  the  writer  is  careless  about  her  personal  habits?  •  It 
is  usually  carelessness — not  indifference — carelessness  in  n.ot 
having  on  your  writing  table 


TThe  Writing  Pacer  of  the  Hoiseholo] 


I'hU  papr-  it  pcriiliarly  •  woman't  paprr— 
tinr.  Irinininr.  r»y  tn  write  ujion,  in  >;oo<l 
ta%lr  and  oorially  currnt. 

All  iti>  lathionalilc  tun.  Sine  beautiiul 
»lia<lc«,  whitr,  pearl  gray,  Scotch  Kray,  SwIm 
blue.  Iiarrhell,  le  lilat.  old  ro«c,  rhanuiit. 


arorn.  Hi);hland  l.inrn  may  alio  be  had  ititb 
attractive  rolorrd  borders  or  gold  bcrelcti 
edges.  S<ild  uherc\er  p>od  itationery  i>  aold. 
If  you  canrtui  Hnd  kiirh  a  iiore,  tend  JOr.  to 
,  ut  for  sample*  and  namrnt  a  dealer  who  wilt 
supply  you. 


EATON,    CRANE 

Pil  TSKIKLD.  MASS. 


&    PIKE 

NKW  YORK 


CO 


tp'' 


m 


TuE  Work  of  a  Wei.l-k.nou  n  Ilmstrator  Used  to  Give 
Interest  and  Story-telling  Effect  to  a  Magazine  Adver- 
tisement. 


250      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

of  people  who  could,  should,  or  would  buy  a  mattress 
or  an  automobile  and  sets  before  them  with  picture  and 
text  the  Ostermoor  or  Oldsmobile  as  enticingly  and  as 
intelligently  as  he  knows  how. 


§  7 

The  art  o5  writing,  the  literary  touch,  can  be  employed 
to  make  advertising  more  effective,  just  as  the  art  of  the 
graphic  artists  is  employed  to  make  it  more  effective. 

The  man  who  writes  a  story  employs  a  certain  tech- 
nique to  make  that  story  effective.  His  choice  of  words 
and  the  mental  images  that  they  invoke,  his  sense  of 
proportion,  of  suppression  of  unessentials,  the  playing- 
up  of  big  points,  the  whole  literary  craftsmanship  which 
makes  a  short  story  effective,  or  a  long  story  effective, 
for  that  matter,  has  an  object  not  dissimilar  from  that 
of  the  advertisement  writer.  He,  too,  has  a  story  to 
tell,  a  story  addressed  to  the  same  mind,  and  while  his 
ulterior  object  is  to  make  you  like,  not  his  story,  but  the 
article  he  is  describing,  in  a  sense  it  is  the  contents  of 
his  advertisement  to  which  he  wishes  to  draw  atten- 
tion, just  as  on  the  part  of  the  story  writer  it  is  the  con- 
tents of  the  story — the  idea  in  it  or  the  characters — 
which  the  story  writer  is  trying  to  sell  you.  It  is  easily 
believable  that  the  advertisement  writer,  who  is  other- 
wise well  equipped,  can  learn  much  from  the  art  of 
writing. 

The  greatest  help  to  the  preparation  of  advertising 
matter  is  a  mixture  of  good  sense  and  good  taste.  An 
advertisement  is  bett-er  because  it  is  based  upon  rules 
of  arrangement,  of  display  or  of  sound  color  schemes. 

The  rules  of  taste  are  not  mere  arbitrary  laws  adopted 


j.uy  :nL7\' y:n.T!  n:njj\\nT:  vy  n  -n-  7ij:j 


Visible  Evidence 
Of  the  Power  of  Advertising 

THIS  building  represents  the  cumulative  result  of  steady 
advertising  during  the  past  thirt>'  years,  beginning 
with  an  appropriation  of  four  hundred  dollars  and  steadily 
increasing  until  several  hundred  thousand  dollars  a  year 
are  being  invested  in  advertising. 

Another  one  of  the  beautiful  buildings  of  this  city — that 
of  John  Wanamaker — is  also  a  monument  erected  to  suc- 
cessful advertising.  It  is  the  cumulative  result  of  fifty-one 
years'  intelligent  investment  of  money  in  advertising. 
Just  across  the  fcrr>"  at  Camden  there  are  two  enormous 
plants,  each  one  impressive  on  account  of  its  size,  each 
one  the  direct  result  of  successful  advertising.  One  is  the 
plant  of  the  Victor  Talking  Machine;  the  other  that  of 
Campbell's  Soups. 

Advertising  becomes  a  visible  asset  when  its  results  are 
expressed  in  such  concrete  forms  as  these. 

THE  CURTIS  PUBLISHING  COMPANY 

Indrpeodcnc*  Squara,  PtiUidclphi* 


\.r.  n.'.T.  ir.v. 


i«fy<«  ft  «.<>•>>  A  f^ « A  a\\. 


CuKTib   I'rHi.isHiNG  Co.  .\i). — Tliiy  titroii}:.  dij^iiilio'l  advertisomciit 
shows  how  a  publishing  house  advertises  advertising. 


252      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

by  some  executive  committee.  They  are  rudimentary  in 
every  mind.  Nature  is  their  source.  Everything  in  the 
world  that  is  left  to  nature  is  a  good  color  scheme.  The 
white  and  blue  of  the  sky,  the  yellow  and  green  of  the 
earth,  the  spectrum  of  the  rainbow,  the  coloring  upon 
any  leaf,  or  fruit,  or  vegetable — these  are  all  perfect 
color  schemes. 

So  advertising,  prepared  along  the  same  lines  that 
actuate  the  artist  up  to  a  certain  limit,  remembering 
that  it  is  an  applied  art  and  not  a  free  art,  will  enhance 
the  value. 

More  than  that,  when  it  is  considered  that  one  of 
the  first  principles  of  advertising  is  to  attract  attention 
— that  is,  to  make  efficient  display — you  soon  realize  that 
the  skillful  artist  and  typographer  can  make  more  strik- 
ing display  than  the  ignorant  and  tasteless  man. 

The  German  posters,  with  their  new  and  unusual  use 
of  color  and  design,  are  much  more  eye-catching  and 
much  better  advertising  than  the  commonplace  stuff 
used  in  this  country,  which  is  so  carefully  planned  not 
to  be  over  the  heads  of  the  masses. 

Advertising  should  not  be  commonplace,  and  one  of 
the  first  tendencies  of  the  ignorant  and  unschooled  is 
commonplace. 

It  requires  brains,  intelligence,  genius  and  taste  to  be 
different  and  original,  and  all  these  things  arise  from 
a  study  of  the  graphic  processes  so  as  to  use  them  in  new 
and  unusual,  but  attractive  and  effective,  ways. 

There  was  a  time  when  it  was  believed  that  any 
illustration,  however  crude,  was  sufficient  for  advertis- 
ing. Now  it  is  well  understood  that  there  is  something 
subtle  in  a  well-drawn  picture — one  that  by  the  skill 
of  the  artist  gives  something  more  than  the  rudiments 
of  the  idea — and  advertising  has  benefited  accordingly. 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      253 

Has  it  benefited  as  much  by  a  study  of  the  art  of 
writing?  It  would  seem  that  the  test  is  readability. 
Are  advertisements  interesting?  Some  of  them  are — 
very  much  so.  Many  advertisements,  if  printed  else- 
where than  in  the  purely  commercial  pages  of  the  maga- 
zine, would  be  read  for  their  intrinsic  interest,  without 
a  suspicion  of  ulterior  object.  The  difference  between 
an  advertisement  written  to  sell  goods  and  an  advertise- 
ment written  to  convey  interesting  information  in  an 
interesting  way  is  the  difference  between  a  rug  displayed 
in  a  museum  for  admiration  and  a  rug  di.splayed  in  the 
marketplace  for  sale. 

The  magazines  frequently  publish  articles,  or  stories 
for  that  matter,  which  incidentally  and  from  the  nature 
of  their  subjects  are  advertisements.  It  is  ea.sy  to  con- 
ceive of  a  human  interest  article  written  about  the 
Island  of  Bermuda  and  published  with  illustrations  in 
a  magazine  for  the  sole  purpose  of  expressing  the  feel- 
ing of  some  writer  toward  the  history  and  picturosque- 
ness  of  this  coral  islet  in  the  midst  of  the  great  Atlantic. 
It  would  be  a  better  advertisement  of  the  advantages 
of  that  Island  as  a  tourist  resort  than  any  folder  pre- 
pared by  a  hotel  or  steam.ship  company.  If,  then,  in- 
stead of  writing  the  ordinary  resort  literature  with  its 
superfluity  of  adjectives  and  its  undiluted  exaggeration, 
a  writer  with  a  sense  of  proportion  and  real  enthusia.sm 
for  his  subject  prepared  that  piece  of  literature,  it  would 
be  gootl  advertising  and  the  more  nearly  good  literature 
the  better  advertising. 

§8 

Sometimes  the  advertisement  writer  takes  advantage 
of  the  world-wide  love  of  a  story  and  tells  one.     The 


254       THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

human  race  are  all  big  children  when  it  comes  to  stories, 
and  teachers  in  all  ages  have  taken  advantage  of  this 
amiable  weakness  to  administer  a  small  dose  of  moral  in 
a  vehicle  of  narrative.  Christ  taught  by  parables; 
Nathan  administered  his  rebuke  to  David  beginning,  * '  A 
certain  man  had  a  little  ewe  lamb,"  and  Scheherezade 
saved  her  life  and  incidentally  invented  the  serial  story 
by  the  tales  she  told  her  suspicious  spouse. 

A  manufacturer  of  a  rubber  tire  takes  a  well-known 
historical  anecdote  and  points  the  obvious  moral  at  his 
own  goods : 

Pot-Luck  with  Lucullus 

Lueullus  was  the  Bradley  Martin  of  antiquity.  It  was  said 
.  that  a  square-meal  at  Lucullus'  country  house  cost  one  hun- 
dred thousand  sestertiums.  It  was  a  favorite  trick  of  Lu- 
cullus' friends  to  stop  him  in  the  Forum  and  beg  to  be  taken 
home  to  dinner,  hoping  to  catch  him  some  day  when  he  had 
nothing  but  warmed-up  potatoes  and  cold  meat. 

"Take  me  out  to  dinner,  Cul,"  said  Cicero  one  day.  "No 
fuss,  you  know;  just  pot-luck." 

Lucullus  telephoned  out,  right  before  Cicero,  and  simply 
said : 

"Serve  dinner  for  two  in  the  Apollo  room." 

The  room  was  decorated  with  American  Beauty  roses  and 
the  dinner  cost  about  ten  thousand  sestertiums  a  plate.  The 
secret  was  in  that  word  "Apollo."  Lucullus  had  an  under- 
standing with  his  servants  that  when  he  said  "Apollo  room" 
it  meant  "Blow  yourself  on  a  meal." 

It  is  a  great  thing  when  one  word  stands  for  all  that's 
good.    It  saves  explanation. 

It  would  take  a  long  paragraph  to  describe  all  the  good- 
ness of  the  Kelly-Springfield  Tire,  but  your  customers  do 
not  have  to  do  that  when  they  want  a  good  tire,  and  neither 
do  you  have  to  when  you  wish  to  tell  them  about  a  good 


Washington's  secretary, 
when  reproved  for  being 
tardy,  blamed  his  watch. 
"Then,"  said  Washington, 
"either  you  must  get  a  new 
watch  or  I  must  get  a  new 
secretary." 

The  advertiser,  too,  demands 
exact  performance.  Either  a  me- 
dium makes  good  or  he  gets  a  new 
medium. 

One  of  the  qualities  of  Farm  and 
Fireside  is  that  it  is  right  sn  the 
minute — that  in  every  respect  it 
fulfils  the  expectation  of  the  farmers 
who  read  it  and,  therefore,  of  the 
advertisers  who  use  it. 

I^rm-Breside 

New  York     Springfield,  Ohio      Chicago 


A  German,  an  Enj^lishman  and 
an  American  were  each  about 
to  draw  an  elephant. 

The  German  evolved  an  ele- 
phant from  his  own  inner  con- 
sciousness. 

The  Englishman  read  all  the 
books  he  could  about  elephants. 

The  American  went  to  the 
Zoo  and  looked  at  an  elephant. 

Have  you,  Mr.  Manufacturer,  evolved 
the  Farmer  from  your  own  inner  con- 
tciousnets  or  read  about  him  in  the  comic 
paperi,  and  then  decided  that  you  cannot 
(ell  him  your  goods .' 

If  so,  come  and  look  at  him.  TTie  Far- 
mer is  simply  an  American  who  lives  in 
the  country.  He  can  and  does  buy  the 
kind  of  things  that  you  do.  Every  Farmer 
b  a  home  provider.  Of  the  450,000  far- 
mers who  read  Farm  and  Fireside  t7  p«r 
cent  are  home  owners. 

I^RM^yiRESIDE 


New  York 


Springfield,  Ohio 

in 


Chicago 


Two  Farm  and  Fireside  Ads. — Two  examples  of  the  storywith 
a- moral  style  of  copy. 


256      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

tire.  You  say  "Kelly-Springfield"  with  a  rising  inflection, 
and  they  say  "Kelly-Springfield"  with  a  positive  inflection, 
and  it  is  done.  The  whole  story  is  told  in  the  words  "Kelly- 
Springfield." 

The  story  is  freshened  up  by  a  few  modern  touches 
which  do  not  lessen  the  point.  Sometimes  mere  allusion 
to  a  well-known  incident  is  enough.  See  how  the  deci- 
sion of  Solomon  advertises  a  padlock. 

Solomon  was  unable  to  distinguish  between  the  real  and 
the  imitation  flowers  brought  him  by  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to 
test  his  wisdom. 

He  had  to  call  in  a  bee  to  help  him  out. 

Solomon's  wisdom  has  never  been  equaled,  but  imitations 
have  become  cleverer  with  the  years. 

What  wonder  then  that  the  public  blunders  in  accepting 
an  imitation  for  a  genuine  Yale  Padlock! 

Yet  if  folks  but  knew  it,  there  is  a  way  of  telling  the  true 
from  the  false  as  simple  as  the  wisdom  of  Solomon  suggested. 

It  is  the  name  "Yale"  on  the  padlock,  put  there  to  protect 
the  buyer's  possessions  and  the  Yale  reputation. 

Ask  your  dealer  to  show  you  the  line. 

An  electric  light  company,  advertising  to  point  out 
the  many  domestic  utilities  of  electric  current,  and 
realizing  that  light  might  be  advertised  in  a  lighter  vein, 
says. 

Tennyson  says: 

"An  infant  crying  in  the  night, 
An  infant  crying  for  a  light. 
And  with  no  language  but  a  cry." 

Edison  says  that  if  the  infant  is  crying  only  for  a  light,  an 
electric  light  can  be  turned  on  by  touching  a  button,  but  that 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      257 

most  iijfjints  who  <t)'  in  the  iiifjlit  cry  for  Konietiiin^'  more 
Bubstniitial  thuii  li^ht,  niul  h(>ro  apiiii  ootnes  in  the  KAlison 
sorv'ife  to  heat  the  baby's  milk  with  an  F^lison  electric  heater 
so  ns  to  ivduce  its  cryinj?  to  the  lowest  possible  terms. 


§  9 

As  an  fiistanco  of  the  way  in  which  a  subject  can  be 
presented  with  many  of  the  (lualities  of  good  writing, 
take  this  announcement  of  the  purpose  of  the  United 
C'ifjar  Stores.  It  is  not  necessary  to  comment  upon  it, 
as  the  whole  story  is  contained  within  the  limits  of  the 
advertisement. 


The  Passing  of  the  Wooden  Injun — In  Its  Place  The  United 
Cifjar  Store 

You  remember  the  old-time  cij^ar  store  and  the  Wooden 
Injun,  don't  you? 

The  store,  we  mean,  in  which,  if  you  happened  to  be  a 
chanc«  visitor,  you  had  no  idea  of  what  you  were  getting  for 
your  money  when  you  bought  a  cigar. 

In  most  of  these  places — not  all,  of  course — you  could  al- 
most hear  the  man  who  waited  on  you  say,  after  you  had 
asked  him  for  his  best  three-for-a-quarter  cigar: 

"This  guy  will  never  come  back,  so  here's  a  chance  to  make 
a  little  extra." 

Everyday  transactions  like  this  represented  the  business 
ethics  of  the  Wooden  Injun. 

When  United  Cigar  Stores  were  first  heard  of  ten  years  ago 
people  were  naturally  a  little  skeptical  of  the  claim  that 
everj'body  would  be  treated  alike — the  stranger  who  was  going 
out  on  the  next  train,  or  the  old  customer  who  could  be 
called  by  name. 

When   the  United  Shield  was  set  up,  the  Wooden  Injun 


258      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

was  banished  to  the  Happy  Hunting  Grounds.  And  all  the 
old  traditions  went  to  limbo  with  it. 

The  Wooden  Injun  represented  the  old  order  of  things — 
the  dingy  shop,  the  man  in  his  shirt  sleeves  to  wait  on  you, 
the  shoddy  cigar  of  his  own  make,  the  musty  case,  the  dusty 
shelf,  the  long  chance. 

The  Wooden  Injun  had  to  go. 

It  would  have  been  as  much  out  of  place  in  front  of  a 
United  Cigar  Store  as  a  corkscrew  in  a  pulpit. 

To  establish  cigar  stores  on  a  new  plan  looked  like  a  big 
undertaking,  and  it  was,  seeing  that  it  was  a  battle,  not 
against  competition,  but  against  old  institutions  and  older 
prejudices. 

In  our  success  we  are  credited  in  some  quarters  with  hav- 
ing worked  a  wonder. 

We  don't  think  so. 

In  the  operation  of  our  hundreds  of  stores  we  have  simply 
applied  the  plain  rules  that  an  individual  proprietor,  who 
knew  his  business,  would  apply  in  a  single  store,  if  he  took 
honest  pride  in  it. 

This  is  the  spirit  of  United  Cigar  Stores. 

Every  man  who  comes  in  once  is  expected  to  be  so  well 
pleased  that  he  is  sure  to  come  back. 

There's  nothing  to  bar  his  way,  with  the  Wooden  Injun  on 
the  scrap  heap. 

This  advertisement  was  written  by  a  writer — by  a  man 
who  had  a  long  varied  newspaper  training.  He  applied 
to  the  writing  of  advertising  copy  his  experience  in 
writing  news  stories,  but  it  is  not  thereby  less  good 
advertising.    It  is  much  enhanced. 

§  10 

Some  years  ago  a  prominent  figure  in  the  advertising 
world  was  John  O.  Powers.    In  the  early  beginnings  of 


CREATIVK  WORK  OF  ADVKHTISINd      259 

iiKKlorn  advertising  he  was  asked  by  a  manufacturer  of 
lamp  chimneys  to  write  advertisiri}^  for  them.  Tliese 
advertisements  were  ho  shrewd,  so  human,  they  h-ft  so 
mueli  unsaid  wliieh  unconsciously  provoked  specidation 
in  the  mind  of  the  reader,  that  they  came  pretty  near 
beiu};  Iit«'rature  without  losing  a  vestige  of  their  power 
as  advertising.  Let  us  quote  some  of  these  advertise- 
ments and  leave  it  to  the  reader  whether  in  so  short  a 
spact;  any  writer  has  said  so  nnich  so  well. 

Tliere's  a  rii,'lit  cliiiuney  for  evciy  lamp,  and  my  nuiiie  is 
on  il.  Macbeth. 

Nobody  else  apparently  dares  put  his  name  on  his  lamp 
chimneys.  Macbeth. 

I  don't  make  all  the  lamp  chimneys;  no  trouble  with  mine. 

Macbeth. 

Later  on  ^fr.  Powers  wrote  some  advertising  for  a 
varnish  company.  This  advertising  had  also  a  certain 
quality,  due  perhaps  to  its  use  of  simple  images  and 
simple  words  which  made  it  distinguished.  Read  this 
adverti.sement,  set  in  type  ordinarily  u.sed  for  quotations, 
without  the  advantage  or  disadvantage  of  advertising 
di.splay,  and  ask  yourself  whether  it  is  readable  or  not: 

"The  Excellent  Is  the  Permanent" 

So  says  Tennyson,  and  so  says  Nature.  The  fhie  things  are 
the  things  that  abide.  Iron  rusts  out;  stone  cnmibles  to  dust; 
gold  remains  imtarnished  for  ages.  "Fine"  does  not  mean 
"frail."  Among  the  things  of  its  class,  the  finest  is  always  the 
firaiest,  or  solidest,  or  strongest,  and  the  most  durable.  Dia- 
mond is  harder  than  glass,  because  it  is  finer.  A  Persian  rug 
wears  longer  than  a  common  carpet,  because  it  is  finer.    Ma- 


260      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

hogany  outlasts  hemlock,  because  it  is  finer.  It  is  exactly  so 
with  varnish :  a  cheaper  grade,  composed  of  poorer  materials, 
is  like  basswood  or  shoddy  cloth.  Only  fine  varnish  can  be 
strong  and  firm  and  durable.  It  costs  a  little  more,  and  it  is 
worth  a  great  deal  more. 

Murphy  Varnish  Co. 

Note  the  simplicity  of  these  Zinc  advertisements: 
What  is  there  about  that  substance  known  as 

ZINC 

which  makes  the  paint  so  good?  Technically  it  is  a  long 
story,  but  the  facts  are  quickly  stated. 

Zinc  makes  paint  look  better,  whether  white  or  colored;  it 
makes  it  last  much  longer,  and  it  transforms  the  paint  into 
an  impervious  shell  of  protection  from  all  kinds  of  weather. 

Proof:  The  best  paint  manufacturers  use  it  in  their  best 
paints. 

The  story  is  readably  told  in  our  booklet,  "Your  Move," 
which  we  would  like  to  send  you. 

The  New  Jersey  Zinc  Company,  55  Wall  Street,  New  York. 
For  big  contract  jobs  consult  our  Research  Bureau. 


ZINC 

in  paint  makes  paint  complete.  It  is  the  ingredient  that  should 
be  added  to  all  paint  to  make  the  other  ingredients  more  ef- 
fective. 

The  chief  cost  of  paint  is  the  cost  of  putting  it  on.  Paint 
without  Zinc  must  be  more  frequently  renewed.  Paint  with^ 
Zinc  in  it  lasts. 

There  are  other  reasons  also  for  Zinc  in  paint.  The  booklet, 
"Your    Move,"    tells.      The    man-whose-house-needs-painting 


"Your  Move"  is  the  name  of  a  book  that 
tells  why  paint  without 


Zinc 

IS  not  paint.  When  we  say  it  is  not  paint, 
we  mean  that  it  will  not  do  all  thethingsthat 
paint  could  and  should  do,  and  which  you 
pay  to  have  done.  You  pay  anyway,  Zinc 
or  no  Zinc. 

Zinc  makes  the  paint  to  which  it  is  added 
look  better,  last  longer  and  guard  more  safely. 

Zinc  in  paint  is  not  a  new  thing  except  to 
you.  All  the  best  paint  manufacturers  use  it 
in  all  their  best  paint.  If  you  get  and  read  the 
booklet,  "Your  Move,"  you  will  know  why. 

The  New  Jersey  Zinc  Company,  55  Wall  Street,  New  York 
For  big  contract  jobs  consult  our  Research  Bureau. 


Nku    Jkksk.y   Zinc  Vo.  Au. — Illustrating  the  effectiveness  of  tho 
use  of  tyi>ograpliy  only  in  the  display  of  an  advertisemeut. 


CovEK  OF  New  Jersey  Zinc  Co.  Booklet 


CRKATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      263 

should  Kond  for  this  btK)k  to-day.    It  will  give  him  the  knowl- 
edge to  insist  on  Zinc  to  his  painter. 

The  New  .lei-sey  Zinc  Company,  55  Wall  Street,  New  York. 
For  bifj:  contract  jobs  consult  our  Hesearch  Hureau. 

Many  pas.sagt's  in  Kipling  have  all  the  qualities  of 
good  advtTtising  writing.  If  the  same  sympathy  for 
mechanical  progress  that  is  shown  in  "The  Ship  That 
Found  Herself,"  or  in  "The  Night  Mail,"  or  in  "Cap- 
tains Courageous"  were  applied  to  the  article  to  be  ex- 
ploited, the  result  would  be  advertising  of  the  best  sort. 

There  are  passages  in  Arnold  Bennett's  books  which 
prove  that  he  would  be  an  excellent  writer  of  advertising. 
Take  the  description  of  the  Pottery  in  "Anna  of  the 
Five  Towns."  Here  is  what  to  many  minds  would  be  a 
very  dull  and  uninteresting  process  of  manufacture.  In 
the  hands  of  a  writer  who  knows  his  vocabulary  and 
who  also  knows  his  subject,  the  process  of  making  cups 
and  saucers  becomes  the  most  interesting  sort  of  read- 
ing. If  the  Potteries  of  the  Five  Towns  wished  to  put 
out  a  booklet,  or  a  series  of  magazine  advertLsements 
about  their  products,  this  material  of  Arnold  Bennett's, 
with  very  little  retouching,  would  be  excellent.  All  the 
devices  that  an  author  uses  to  gain  attention  are  admira- 
ble for  the  advertisement  writer.  Whatever  is  humanly 
interesting  that  can  be  introduced  into  advertising,  helps 
that  advertising  just  as  it  helps  the  short  story  or  the 
book.  Personal  experience,  the  narrative  style,  unusual 
characterization,  happy  epithets:  all  the.se  things  have 
their  place  in  advertisement  writing.  If  they  are  not 
used  more,  it  is  not  so  much  because  they  are  not  appre- 
ciated, as  becau.se  so  much  advertising  is  written  by 
men  who  have  not  also  the  gift  of  writing. 

You  must  combine  two  processes  of  thought,  not  usu- 


264      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

ally  found  together,  to  produce  the  perfect  advertise- 
ment writer.  He  must  have  the  commercial  instinct  as 
well  as  the  artistic  literary  touch. 


§11 

Seymour  Eaton,  who  once  flamed  over  the  horizon  of 
advertising  by  the  novelty  of  his  ideas  and  their  ex- 
pression, wrote  an  advertisement  to  introduce  his  tea, 
which  is  here  inserted  as  a  sample  of  advertisement 
writing  that  gets  over  into  the  class  of  current  literature. 


The  Tea-drinking  Center  of  the  World 

I  spent  six  weeks  in  London  last  summer;  largely  at  the 
London  office  of  The  Booklovers  Library.  I  found  that  the 
library  had  the  afternoon  tea  habit  finnly  established.  Work 
stopped  at  four  o'clock.  Tea  was  served  to  everyone,  from 
the  packers  in  the  basement  to  the  titled  aristocracy  who  fre- 
quented the  library  resting  and  reading  rooms  and  whose  car- 
riages waited  on  Hanover  Street.  I  called  it  tomfoolery;  a 
waste  of  employer's  time;  and  I  told  the  manager  so.  An 
American  institution  should  be  managed  on  American  lines. 
But  in  a  week  I  changed  my  mind,  and  in  two  weeks  I  had 
the  tea  habit  fully  developed  myself.  At  four  o'clock  there- 
after I  had  tea  served  in  my  office  on  the  second  floor,  and 
I  had  the  pleasure  almost  daily  of  ordering  an  extra  cup  or 
two  for  American  callers.  Employers  of  labor  in  England 
are  required  by  law  to  give  their  "help"  this  extra  half-hour, 
and  in  nearly  all  large  concerns  the  tea  is  served  right  in  the 
place  at  the  expense  of  the  house.  There  isn't  anything  much 
more  refreshing  than  a  cup  of  tea  in  the  middle  of  the  after- 
noon ;  that  is,  if  the  tea  is  good ;  and  there  is  no  place  in 
the  world  where  tea  is  so  uniformly  good  as  in  England. 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      265 

This  explains  why  we  atfkfd  a  I^)tu]on  h()UK<»  to  put  u[)  the 
Tabard  Inn  Tt-a;  the  hir>;est  iniportiTx  and  aoknowledKod 
the  best  tea  blendere  in  Great  Britain.  I  am  told  (and  I  be- 
lieve it)  that  the  three  blends  of  Tabard  Inn  Tea  are  uni- 
t'ornily  the  best  teas  ever  shipped  by  this  house  to  the 
United  States.  Americans  wlio  liave  enjoyed  the  teas  of  Eng- 
land say,  "We  never  get  anything  like  this  in  America."  You 
can  have  it  now  quite  as  good  as  the  best  in  England.  The 
Knight's  Blend  sells  for  $1.50  a  pound;  The  Prioress'  Blend 
for  $1.00;  and  the  Clerk  of  Oxford's  Blend  for  GOc,  named 
after  three  of  the  Canterbury  Pilgrims.  Packed  in  half- 
pound  tins  and  sold  by  all  gi-ocers  canning  high-grade  goods. 
Each  package  contains  a  little  booklet  giving  directions  for 
making.  For  tired  people,  people  who  overstrain  in  one  way 
or  another,  there  is  probably  nothing  so  healthful  or  so  rest- 
ful as  a  cup  of  good  tea,  made  right  and  served  right.  It  is 
the  best  "between  meal"  beverage  that  the  world  has  yet  dis- 
covered. 


§  12 


The  time  is  slowly  approaching  when  writers  of  the 
first  rank  will  write  advertising,  just  as  now  artists  of 
the  first  rank  do  not  hesitate  to  produce  commercial 
art.  A  long  list  of  artists,  beginning  with  such  men 
as  Sir  John  Millais,  Herbert  von  Herkomer,  George  du 
Maurier,  and  Sir  Frederick  Leighton,  and  to-day  includ- 
ing Rollo  Ogden,  Irving  Wiles,  ^laxfield  Parrish.  as  well 
as  nearly  all  the  leading  American  illustrators,  are  con- 
tributing to  make  advertising,  not  only  delightful,  but 
more  resultful. 

The  first  book  by  the  Williamsons.  "The  Lightning 
Conductor,"  Avas  the  best  advertisement  the  Napier  Car 
ever  had,  and  practically  made  that  car  the  best  known 
automobile  in   England.     The  advertising  was  uncon- 


266      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

scious  and  unintentional,  but  it  shows  how  far  the  work 
of  the  so-called  literary  writer  could  be  used  in  the  ex- 
ploitation of  business  and  its  products. 


§  13 

This  shows  that  the  writer  of  advertising  is  omnivo- 
rous. All  is  grist  that  comes  to  his  mill.  No  piece  of 
knowledge  is  wasted.  Everything  can  at  some  time  be 
woven  into  that  fabric  which  is  to  appeal  to  the  interest, 
taste,  desire,  fear,  cupidity,  reason,  instinct,  of  human 
beings.  And  all  that  has  been  written  fails  to  construct 
for  you  that  sixth  sense  which  is  responsible  for  the  real 
creative  work  of  advertising. 

Here  stands  the  factory,  its  machines  turning  out  daily 
a  stream  of  goods.  Here  are  the  distributors,  the  job- 
bers, drummers,  retailers,  who  carry  those  goods  all  over 
this  great  country,  until  the  familiar  package,  bale,  bun- 
dle, box  or  carton  is  found  on  shelf  and  counter  in  every 
village  or  city. 

Here  are  the  consumers,  the  homes  with  the  varied 
wants  and  desires,  all  more  or  less  alike,  more  alike  than 
different,  but  separated  by  distance,  tastes,  education, 
habitat,  income  and  climate. 

By  what  method,  what  group  of  mediums,  what  ar- 
rangement of  words  and  pictures,  what  appeal,  com- 
mand or  demand,  can  this  multitude  of  people  be  induced 
to  go  to  those  thousands  of  stores  and  demand  packages 
from  those  neat  rows  on  the  shelves? 

What  is  the  greatest  common  denominator  of  those 
goods  and  these  people? 

Here  is  a  wonderful  array  of  tools  to  choose  from : 
thousands  of  magazines,  tens  of  thousands  of  newspapers, 


CREATIVE  WORK  OF  ADVERTISING      267 

miles  of  billboards  and  painted  signs,  a  hundred  thou- 
sand street  ears.  Here  are  writers  and  artists,  printing 
presses  and  lithof^raphers.  Here  are  thousands  of  win- 
dows in  the  stores  to  be  dresseil  with  the  poods.  Here 
are  investigators  to  find  out  all  aboiit  the  goo<ls,  the 
stores,  aiul  the  eonsuiners;  what  they  want,  what  they 
will  pay,  how  they  live.  Here  are  various  advertising 
agents,  each  with  his  specialized  individuality,  all  aim- 
ing at  the  same  thing,  to  .sell  the  goods,  but  with  styles 
varying  as  Robert  W.  Chambers  varies  from  Theodore 
Dreiser,  as  Charles  Dana  Gibson  varies  from  Howard 
Pyle. 

Hut  the  man  who  makes  the  success  of  that  advertis- 
ing must  choose  his  tools,  his  ingredients,  and  must  put 
them  together  so  that  the  great  public  gets  a  distinct, 
vivid,  lasting  impression,  an  impression  that  is  closely 
related  to  impulse.  Thus  it  is  that  to  many  every  player 
piano  is  a  Pianola,  every  camera  a  Kotlak. 

Study,  investigation,  common-sense,  experience — all 
help  to  guide  a  man  toward  an  understanding  of  adver- 
tising. There  will  always  be  .some  who  by  a  certain  feel- 
ing, or  temperament  or  clarity  of  vision,  will  be  able  to 
use  these  materials  better,  to  produce  a  more  vivid 
image,  a  more  lasting  impression,  a  more  definite  suc- 
cess. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

SELLING    AT    RETAIL 
§   1 

Retail  advertising  is  the  advertising  done  by  retail 
dealers  through  local  newspapers  and  other  mediums  in 
order  to  reach  people  who  will  come  to  the  store  and  buy 
goods.  Retail  advertising  differs  from  general  adver- 
tising chiefly  in  respect  to  the  fact  that  it  is  local  rather 
than  general.  The  same  qualities  that  make  general  ad- 
vertising good  apply  to  retail  advertising.  But,  as  a 
rule,  retail  advertising  is  not  so  well  done. 

The  manufacturer  who  is  selling  a  product  over  the 
entire  country  can  afford  to  pay  more  than  the  retailer 
does  for  both  his  "copy"  and  for  his  designs.  This  is 
true,  not  in  general,  but  in  particular.  A  number  of 
retailers,  especially  those  in  the  large  cities,  do  just  as 
good  advertising  and  spend  just  as  much  money  upon 
their  copy  and  designs  as  the  general  advertiser, 
and  in  some  instances  more.  Department  stores 
pay  very  large  salaries  to  advertisement  writers,  and 
give  a  great  deal  of  thought  and  study  to  their  cuts, 
designs,  illustrations,  type  display  and  other  essen- 
tials. 

Retail  advertising  is  the  real  support  of  the  news- 
papers, and  a  great  proportion  of  it  comes  from  the  de- 
partment stores.  In  a  great  many  cities  these  stores  use 
as  much  as  a  page  a  day  in  a  given  newspaper,  and  in 

268 


^» 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  269 

Rome  cases  two  and  even  four  pages  have  been  used  for 
a  single  advertisement. 

In  metropolitan  eities,  such  as  New  York,  Chicago  and 
Philadelphia,  as  high  as  $20,000  a  year  is  paid  to  the 
man  who  has  charge  of  the  advertising.  This  man  may 
have  as  many  as  a  dozen  assistants,  some  of  whom  are 
advertising  writers,  others  of  whom  are  printers,  design- 
ers, artists,  stenographers  and  clerks,  making  a  com- 
plete advertising  department  in  itself. 

The  retail  advertiser  as  such  cannot  use  the  magazines 
or  any  publication  having  a  general  circulation.  His 
chief  medium  is  the  newspaper  which  circulates  not  only 
in  the  city  where  the  business  is  located,  but  in  nearby 
suburban  towns  tributary  to  the  main  city  from  which 
the  store  draws  shoppers. 

A  moilern  development  of  business  and  of  advertising 
is  a  chain  of  stores  operated  by  one  manufacturer,  who 
thus  becomes  a  retailer  on  a  large  scale.  Such  a  chain 
of  stores  can  be  advertised  in  mediums  of  national  cir- 
culation, giving  the  addresses  of  the  stores  in  the  dif- 
ferent cities,  unless  the  list  is  too  long,  in  which  case 
the  reader  of  the  advertising  is  advised  to  look  up  the 
store  in  his  own  town. 

One  of  the  largest  enterprises  of  this  kind  is  an  as- 
sociation of  cigar  stores  which  maintains  not  only  one 
but  many  retail  stores  in  a  single  town,  and  has  spread 
all  over  the  United  States,  so  that  small  towns  have  at 
least  one  store  of  this  syndicate.  This  advertiser  uses 
both  magazines  and  newspapers.  Several  shoe  manu- 
facturers, druggists  and  other  businesses  follow  the  same 
plan. 

The  advertising  done  by  these  syndicates  of  stores  is 
not  retail  advertising  in  a  strict  sense,  although  the 
stores   are   retail   stores.     When   a    manufacturer  sells 


270      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

goods  by  general  advertising,  whether  he  sells  it  through 
the  regular  retail  stores  or  through  his  own  retail  stores, 
the  advertising  he  does  is  more  nearly  similar  to  general 
advertising  than  it  is  to  retail  advertising. 


§  2 

The  retail  advertiser  then  is  the  man  who  advertises 
in  local  newspapers  to  get  local  customers  to  come  to  his 
store  to  buy  goods.  In  the  smaller  towns  there  is  a 
close  personal  relation  between  the  dealer  himself  and 
his  customers.  In  a  large  city  a  great  store  grows  up 
with  an  army  of  clerks,  and  the  advertiser  himself  as 
a  personality  is  unknown  to  the  shoppers. 


§  3 


At  the  head  of  retail  advertising  stands,  as  has  been 
said,  department  store  advertising,  and  the  pioneer  in 
department  store  advertising  is  without  question  John 
Wanamaker.  Although  there  are  many  department 
stores  to-day  whose  advertising  is  as  intelligent  and  as 
productive  as  that  of  the  two  Wanamaker  stores,  it  is 
true  that  the  modern  idea  of  department  store  advertis- 
ing grew  up  under  the  management  of  John  Wanamaker 
in  Philadelphia.  It  is  generally  said  that  Manly  IVI. 
Gillam,  an  advertising  writer  of  reputation,  is  largely 
responsible  for  what  is  known  as  the  Wanamaker  style 
of  advertising. 

The  finest  thing  said  about  Benjamin  Altman  when 
he  died  was  said  by  John  Wanamaker.  What  he  said 
was  that  Altman  was  an  artist  in  business.     The  great 


•a 

SELLING  AT  RETAIL  271 

white  marble  store  on  Fifth  Avenue  in  New  York  is  a 
mo<Iel  department  store;  more  than  that,  it  is  a  worthy 
addition  to  the  notable  buildinpi  of  that  city,  architec- 
turally the  equal  of  the  publie  library  and  other  boasted 
buildinji^s.  This  fact  and  the  further  fact  that  it  bears 
no  sipn  or  other  indication  of  its  name  and  purpose  are 
also  advertising — advertising  of  the  most  subtle  and  far- 
reaching  kind. 

The  New  York  Wanamaker  store  bears  the  style — 
"Successor  to  A.  T.  Stewart."  Thus  Wanamaker  as- 
tutely links  his  store  with  what  was  probably  the  original 
department  store.  The  Wanamaker  advertising  to-day 
is  quite  different  from  that  style  created  by  Gillam, 
which  furnished  the  model  for  so  many  stores  in  other 
cities.  It  is  so  individual  in  style  that  it  constantly 
creates  wonder  whether  anything  so  extreme  can  be 
sound. 

Joseph  11.  Appel,  the  Advertising  Manager  of  the 
New  York  store,  has  set  down  one  such  query  and  his 
answer  which  Tiiay  be  taken  as  an  exposition  of  this  new 
note  in  advertising. 

"Good  niominpr." 

"Good  nioniinir,  I  am  glad  to  see  you." 

"I  have  just  come  from  your  Auditorium.  (One  of  the  fore- 
most advortisiiiu:  ajrents  of  New  York  is  speakinir.) 

"I  read  this  nioruin<r  your  advertisement  announoinjr  the 
SpriufT  Presentation  of  Paris  Gowns,  exploiting  the  influence 
of  the  Cubists  and  Futurists  on  the  new  fashions.  (It  is  like 
many  other  Wanamaker  advertisements:  educational,  artistic, 
individual.) 

"I  have  come  to  a.sk  you  a  question,"  continues  the  \'isitor. 

"It  maj'  sound  brutal  to  ask  it — and  unnecessary',  for  your 
Auditorium  is  crowded  and  you  are  certainly  getting  a  good 
response 


rta  -^fntma  fow.  wtw  ■ 


Evening  Post  Page  of  Wanamaker  News 


Wanamaker  Newspaper  Page  Ad. — This  page  advertisement, 
illustrating  the  modern  style  of  the  Wanamaker  Store,  while 
differing  considerably  in  effect,  has  behind  it  the  same  prin- 
ciple as  inspired  the  original  Wanamaker  style. 


Arrived  Paquebot  "La  Franct,"  August  20,  Firtt  Steamer  from  Havre  Since  the  War 

SEVESTY-OyE   PARIS  GOWNS  AND   WRAPS 

To  Be  Exhibiisd  in  Uu  Wanamaker  Auditorium^  Tomorrom  and  Friday  of  This  Week,  at  11  and  2 


IJVUj^  ' 


^^asT 


~7!^  ■, -  a^'SSSSrSii  •——"•"'-»  yrrVST^jl'  And  the  gowns,  the  eowral 

■■*"""  ^"rSCrSSirj     •»i«J^.n»  SS'JVirCr'^  You  may  see  them  yourself 

^ySi^Z  mSHiiSSimr'  .^'r-*-**— —  ■■  -     -  ■  tomorrow  m  the  Wanamaker 

s— "--stctS  I  ■  iim  -1-^      .-..i...-..^  »2j— -«.*™«  Auditorium,  one  of  the  most 

rffvK^K  ?iSE|s.'£J^  "T*.!.     I    ,,    .  ^~""^'^"*  notable  collections  we  have 

^^■---ssS  ;,'il_.""— •  y-  «•'*■'■——  .„.^.  ever  presented. 

"  i=^v    JOHN  WANAMAKER,  NEW  YORK  -Jrs^ 

Wanamaker  War  Ad. — This  remarkable  page  advertisement, 
based  upon  facts,  and  with  a  tremendous  news  value,  shows 
how  the  Wanamaker  Store  took  advantage  of  the  great  public 
interest  in  the  war  between  the  Allies  and  the  Germans,  1914. 


274      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

"But  does  this  sort  of  advertising  pay — does  it  pay?  I  am 
not  asking  it  for  myself,  for  I  am  doing  the  same  sort  of 
advertising,  to  a  limited  extent.  But  my  clients  ask  me.  I 
think  it  is  wonderful,  and  interesting — but  may  I  ask  you 
again — does  it  pay?" 

Then  I  awake.    My  heart  is  aroused — and  it  speaks. 

"You  need  not  apologize  for  the  question.  We  are  often 
asked  it — not  by  the  public,  the  shopping  public,  but  by  mer- 
chants and  advertisers. 

"One  merchant  wrote  to  a  friend  in  New  York :  'Find  me  an 
advertiser,  the  best  in  New  York,  but  not  the  one  who  writes 
the  Wanamaker  advertisement  in  the  Evening  Post;  I  read 
that  page  every  day  and  it  fascinates  me,  but  I  dare  not 
try  that  sort  of  advertising;  it  is  too  far  beyond  the  people.' 

"Does  it  pay? 

"Does  art  ever  pay? 

"More  than  80,000  people  attended  the  International  Exhibi- 
tion of  Modern  Art  in  New  York  in  February  and  March. 
More  than  a  thousand  paintings  were  exhibited.  Perhaps 
two  score  out  of  the  thousand  were  sold. 

"Does  it  pay? 

"These  artists — the  Cubists,  the  Futurists,  the  Post-impres- 
sionists— call  them  what  you  will — ai'e  striving  earnestly  to 
break  away  from  traditions  in  art,  to  open  new  paths,  to  in- 
terpret a  new  spirit,  to  create  something  better.  Do  they  ask 
themselves,  does  it  pay  ?  No,  they  pour  out  their  souls  in  their 
work,  let  the  result  be  what  it  will." 

"But  advertising  is  commercial,"  my  visitor  says. 

"Yes,  and  'business  is  business,'  is  the  cry. 

"But  those  who  say  this  have  no  conception  of  Wanamaker 
business  or  of  Wanamaker  advertising. 

"Many  years  ago  an  editor  said,  *Mr.  Wanamaker  is  not'  a 
great  merchant,  he  is  a  great  artist.' 

"The  Wanamaker  store  is  not  merely  a  business;  it  is  a 
great  artist's  conception  of  industry  and  trade  and  educa- 
tion and  service  to  the  people. 

"The  new  schools  of  art  are  striving  to  put  life  and  mo- 


SKLLING  AT  RKTAIL  275 

tion  into  pniiilitiy:  ajul  wulpturo,  to  put  iVelirin  into  pnint  nnd 
stone.  This  is  what  Mr.  Wanninaker  has  done  witli  lii«  fo^at 
Ktori>s;  witli  the  sure  touch  of  the  master  he  has  made  living;; 
t'anva.ses  of  hiunati  8er\'ice — tliat  human  service  of  minister- 
inj?  to  the  needs,  one  to  another,  wliieh  Benjamin  Franklin 
said  is  true  woi-ship. 

''Shall  we  a.sk  them — does  it  pay?  Does  advertisinff  that 
reflet!ts  sueh  hiph  conception  payt 

"Who  eares  whether  it  pays? 

"Not  the  artist  who  conceives  such  n  great  picture — an 
artist  never  questions;  ho  d(H's  that  which  genius  has  given 
him  to  do;  he  can  do  nothing  else. 

"Who  then  shall  care?  The  loyal  men  and  women  who 
are  the  living  figures  on  the  canvas t     No. 

"The  public  who  are  the  great  beneficiaries  of  this  noble 
achievement  T    No. 

"Only  they — the  few — who  wonder  and  admire,  yet  fail 
to  comprehend — only  they  ask — 'does  it  pay?' 

"Oh,  ye  of  little  faith! 

"Does  it  payf 

"Did  Columbus  ask  whether  it  would  pay  when  he  set  sail 
across  unknown  watere? 

"Did  the  rilgrim  Fathei-s  ask  whether  it  would  pay  when 
they  faced  the  dangere  and  hardships  of  a  new  land? 

"They  merely  did  the  right  as  they  saw  the  right  and  let  the 
cost — or  reward — take  care  of  itself. 

"The  right  in  storekeeping  is  to  render  the  best  ser\'ice 
to  the  public,  with  justice  to  all  concerned  in  the  undertaking. 

"To  gather  the  world's  best  merchandise,  that  it  may  be 
bought  to  the  best  advantage,  fair  to  the  maker  and  to  the 
consumer. 

"To  improve  merchandise  wherever  possible. 

"To  summon  art  and  invention  to  the  aid  of  merchandise, 
that  the  people  may  have  the  fruits  of  the  world's  genius. 

"To  educate  the  public  in.  the  arts  of  dress  and  house- 
making. 

"To  make  shopping  safe,  pleasant  and  satisfactory. 


5276      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

"To  educate  and  improve  the  personnel  of  a  store,  that 
the  service  may  constantly  reach  a  higher  level. 

"To  bring  art  and  joy  and  beauty  and  education,  not  only 
into  the  lives  of  the  great  business  family,  but  into  the  homes 
of  the  public  as  well. 

"To  set  up  a  standard  of  merchandising  that  will  be  an 
example  and  inspiration  for  the  world. 

"To  create  advertising  that  will  fairly  and  adequately  pre- 
sent the  store  service  to  all  who  may  care  to  avail  themselves 
of  its  advantages. 

"Wanamaker  advertising,  like  the  Wanamaker  business,  is 
not  for  a  day. 

"Wanamaker  advertising  is  not  written  just  to  sell  the  goods 
it  advertises. 

"Leo  Omstein,  the  young  Russian  pianist,  was  to  give  a 
recital  at  3 :00  o'clock  of  an  afternoon. 

"He  said :  *I  want  a  piano  to  practice  on  early  to-morrow 
morning.' 

"  'How  many  hours  will  you  practice?'  he  was  asked. 

"  'At  least  five.' 

"  'And  give  the  recital  afterwards  V 

"  'Yes.  I  am  not  thinking  of  that  recital,'  he  replied.  'I 
practiced  for  that  months  ago.  But  how  could  I  give  a  re- 
cital next  week,  next  month,  next  year,  if  I  did  not  practice 
to-day?' 

"Wanamaker  advertising  is  constantly  building  for  the  fu- 
ture, just  as  the  Wanamaker  Store  is  constantly,  building  for 
the  future.    The  present,  then,  takes  care  of  itself. 

"The  purpose  of  all  retail  advertising  is  to  serve  the  pub- 
lic; to  give  information  that  will  help  to  satisfactory  buying; 
to  present  the  true  character  and  personality  of  the  store;  to 
represent  the  store  as  it  is,  its  merchandise  as  it  is,  its  service 
as  it  is.  In  doing  this  it  becomes  what  the  store  itself  is; 
an  inspiration  to  those  who  will  study  its  spirit,  and  educa- 
tion to  those  who  will  understand  its  message;  a  pioneer  in 
art,  in  science,  in  merchandising;  a  leader  in  human  service. 

"The  Wanamaker  business  can  never  change  so  long  as  it 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  «77 

holds  the  personality  of  the  Founder;  Wanainnker  advertising 
can  never  change  so  lon^r  as  if  refle<'ts  this  Waiiainaker  spirit. 

"'Does  it   payT'  is  never  asked  by  Mr.  Wananiaker. 

"'Does  it  serve  the  public T'  is  his  only  query. 

"Profit  is  a  by-product,  just  as  happiness  is  a  by-product. 

"Those  who  keep  looking  everlastingly  for  happiness  never 
find  it. 

"Those  who  go  along  quietly  doing  the  right  thing  by 
themselves  and  by  their  neighbors  find  happiness  all  the  time." 


My  visiting  friend  smiles. 

"This  is  as  subtle  as  Wanaraaker  advertising  itself,"  he 
said. 

"Does  it  pay?    I  am  ashamed  that  I  asked  the  question. 

"Does  that  great  granite  Wanamaker  building  in  Philadel- 
phia— the  largest  store  in  the  world — look  as  if  Wanamaker 
merchandising  and  Wanamaker  advertising  did  not  payT 

"Could  the  largest  business  in  New  York  and  the  largest 
business  in  Philadelphia  have  been  built  up  on  a  policy  that 
did  not  pay? 

"You  must  be  having  your  own  quiet  little  laugh  at  other 
merchants — the  blind  merchants,"  he  concluded. 


"Does  it  payf"  I  murmur  to  myself,  as  the  visitor  says 
good-by. 

I  listened  last  night  to  Mischa  Elman  playing  the  violin. 
Five  thousand  othere  also  heard  him.  The  Metropolitan 
Opera  House  was  crowded  from  pit  to  dome — at  an  average  of 
more  than  a  dollar  a  seat. 

Does  art  payT 

Does  art  pay. 

§  4 

Preparing  the  advertising  of  a  large  department  store 
is  almost  as  complex  as  the  work  of  issuing  a  daily  news- 


278      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

paper.  Department  stores  advertise  every  day  or  almost 
every  day,  concentrating  their  large  advertising  on  the 
day  preceding  the  principal  shopping  day  of  the  week  in 
that  town.  In  small  towns  that  day  is  usually  Saturday, 
because  Saturday  is  the  pay-day  in  most  small  towns, 
and  because  those  towns  have  no  Sunday  newspapers. 
Therefore,  the  leading  department  store  advertising  ap- 
pears in  the  papers  Friday  night  and  Saturday  morn- 
ing. 

In  a  large  city,  such  as  New  York,  Monday  is  the 
leading  shopping  day,  and  the  heaviest  advertising  is 
done  in  the  Sunday  papers.  Some  stores,  either  for 
reasons  of  principle  or  for  reasons  of  policy,  do  not 
advertise  on  Sunday,  contenting  themselves  with  Satur- 
day night  and  Monday''  morning.  Some  retail  stores 
go  so  far  as  not  to  make  window  displays  on  Sunday, 
drawing  all  their  curtains  between  Saturday  night  and 
Monday  morning.  The  Wanamaker  advertisements,  for 
instance,  do  not  appear  in  the  Sunday  papers.  But  the 
fact  that  the  great  bulk  of  department  store  advertising 
appears  on  Sunday  has  made  Monday  the  great  shopping 
day. 

Friday  was  for  years  the  dullest  day  in  the  shopping 
week.  The  stores  fell  gradually  into  the  habit  of  mak- 
ing attractive  offers  for  Friday  only,  to  attract  a  crowd 
of  shoppers  on  that  day.  This  has  been  so  successful 
that  the  shopping  woman  has  been  educated  to  shop  on 
Friday,  until  Friday  is  the  next  heaviest  day  in  the 
week.  On  these  two  days  the  crowd  is  so  great  that  de- 
partment stores  are  now  seriously  considering  the  possi- 
bility of  switching  some  of  the  business  over  to  other 
days  by  lessening  their  bargain  advertising  for  the  two 
days  in  question,  and  increasing  it  for  the  other  days. 
It  is  a  fact  that  a  great  number  of  women  living  in  or 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  «79 

near  New  York  City  liave  clmnpefl  their  repijlar  wash- 
day from  Monday  to  Tuesday  in  order  to  take  advantage 
of  the  bargains  advertised  in  Sunday's  papery. 


§  5 

The  department  store  advertising  in  a  large  city  ia 
duplieatetl  on  a  smaller  scale  in  every  department  store 
in  the  country,  but  it  can  be  l)est  described  by  taking  the 
method  of  a  large  store.  Such  a  department  store  will 
have  anywhere  from  fifty  to  two  hundred  departments, 
each  on(>  in  charge  of  a  competent  department  head,  who 
very  often  and  generally  is  the  buyer  for  that  depart- 
ment. These  department  heads  go  over  their  stock  con- 
stantly, and  make  copious  notes  for  the  benefit  of  the 
advertising  numager,  describing  especially  some  new  or 
attractive  goods,  or  some  goods  which  for  some  reason 
can  be  sold  at  a  special  or  bargain  price.  This  vast  array 
of  rough  material  is  turned  over  to  the  advertising  man- 
ager, and  he  with  his  assistants,  in  conjunction  with  the 
manager  of  the  store,  single  out  from  this  ma.ss  of 
descriptions  the  goods  which  are  to  be  made  the  feature 
of  the  next  adverti-sement. 

Let  us  suppose  that  it  is  an  advertisement  for  the 
Sunday  papers,  and  that  it  will  occupy  a  page.  As 
early  in  the  week  as  possible  the  advertising  manager 
collects  liis  reports  from  the  department  heads,  sifts  out 
his  stuflt  and  gets  the  first  rough  draft  of  the  page  ad- 
vertisement ready.  Almost  every  week  the  work  is  in- 
terrupted at  the  last  moment  by  the  addition  of  new 
and  attractive  goods  received  at  the  last  moment,  or 
a  lot  of  goods  which  for  some  cause  can  be  sold  at  a  lower 
price  than  was  expected.     Not  until  the  papers  go  to 


280      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

press  is  the  manager  really  through  with  his  work  upon 
the  page  advertisement. 

While  the  advertisement  is  being  written  out  in  type- 
writing, artists  are  at  work  making  illustrations,  or  go- 
ing over  proofs  of  cuts  already  made  to  select  such  as 
will  do.  Frequently  a  special  heading  for  the  entire 
advertisement  is  drawn.  For  instance,  a  "furniture 
sale"  or  "white-goods  sale"  will  have  an  appropriate 
design  covering  the  entire  top  of  the  advertisement,  even 
though  the  advertisement  does  not  treat  altogether  of  the 
main  subject. 

When  everything  is  ready  the  advertisement  is  set  in 
type.  Some  of  the  best  department  stores  have  their 
own  printing  departments,  and  the  entire  advertisement 
is  set  in  type  in  their  own  offices.  In  other  cases  the 
"copy"  and  cuts  are  sent  to  one  of  the  newspaper 
offices,  which  sets  up  the  advertisement,  and  then  ex- 
changes matrices  with  the  other  newspapers. 

The  preparation  of  the  Sunday  announcement  often 
keeps  the  advertising  manager  and  some  of  his  assistants 
at  work  until  a  late  hour  Saturday  night,  and  it  is  often 
impossible  for  him  to  leave  until  every  proof  has  been 
approved. 

Sometimes  in  the  hurry  of  setting  an  advertisement 
on  the  part  of  a  newspaper,  an  error  will  be  made  in  a 
price.  If  the  error  is  one  which  makes  the  price  more 
favorable,  there  will  often  be  a  big  demand  for  this 
particular  article.  If  the  mistake  has  been  made  by  the 
store,  the  store  or  the  advertising  manager  must  bear 
the  loss.  If  the  mistake  has  been  made  by  the  news- 
paper, then  it  is  customary  to  send  a  bill  for  the  dif- 
ference between  the  advertised  price  of  the  article  and 
the  price  at  which  it  should  have  been  sold,  for  the  entire 
quantity  sold,  to  the  newspaper,  and  in  nearly  every 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  281 

case  such  bills  are  promptly  paid  by  the  pap«'r  in  ques- 
tion. Such  an  instance  occurs  at  least  once  in  the  his- 
tory of  nearly  every  department  store. 


§  6 

The  work  of  the  advertising  manager  is  not  confined 
to  getting  up  the  regular  newspaper  advertisements. 
Large  department  stores  use  many  other  mediums, 
such  as  programs,  local  publications  not  strictly  news- 
papers, out-of-town  newspapers,  street-car  space,  posters, 
billboards,  painted  signs,  electric  signs,  novelties  of  all 
kinds,  and  in  addition  to  these  a  large  volume  of  printed 
matter,  all  of  which  comes  under  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
advertising  man. 

In  some  stores  the  window-dressing  is  made  a  depart- 
ment of  the  advertising  work.  In  others  it  is  a  depart- 
ment by  itself.  In  a  large  store  the  head  window-trim- 
mer has  a  number  of  assistants.  The  art  of  dressing 
windows  attractively  has  become  a  specialty  by  itself, 
and  some  men  are  very  expert  in  it.  A  good  window- 
trimmer  commands  as  high  a  salary  in  some  cases  as  an 
advertising  man.  Of  course,  in  a  strict  sense  he  is  an 
advertising  man.  Successfully  arranged  windows  are  a 
strong  part  of  a  department  store's  advertising. 

The  printed  matter  sent  out  by  a  department  store  is 
quite  a  business  by  itself.  Such  stores  issue  at  least 
one  general  catalog,  and  a  large  number  of  special  ones. 
Then  there  are  circulars,  folders,  envelope-stuffers,  bun- 
dle tickets  and  other  small  printed  things  which  are 
dropped  into  envelopes  or  bundles,  or  distributed  in  the 
store.  Department  stores  sometimes  publish  a  monthly 
magazine  or  house  organ,  and  in  the  case  of  some  stores 


282      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

this  rises  to  the  dignity  of  a  very  serious  magazine,  con- 
taining fashion  news,  articles  on  dress  and  toilet,  and 
even  stories,  poems  and  illustrations.  The  advertising 
manager  must  prepare  this  or  have  it  prepared  for  him. 
A  general  catalog  is  prepared  because  a  big  store  has 
customers  covering  a  very  wide  territory.  Often  a  store 
which  does  not  regularly  solicit  mail-order  business  re- 
ceives nevertheless  a  large  number  of  orders  by  mail,  and 
a  great  many  requests  for  prices  and  descriptions  of 
goods,  which  can  best  be  answered  by  means  of  a  com- 
plete catalog.  Some  department  stores  encourage  mail- 
order business  and  regularly  advertise  their  catalog  over 
the  entire  country  in  national  mediums,  but,  of  course, 
stores  which  do  this  are  in  this  case  mail-order  adver- 
tisers, and  such  advertising  comes  under  that  heading. 


The  advertising  of  a  department  store  is  a  good  kind. 
It  never  gets  far  from  its  subject.  Mr.  ]\Iacy  assumes 
every  day  that  thousands  and  thousands  of  women  are 
going  to  buy  food,  clothing  and  household  goods  some- 
where. He  has  all  these  things  in  his  store.  He  tries  to 
describe  them  so  aptly  and  so  enticingly  that  women 
will  remember  to  go  to  his  store  for  such  goods.  That 
is  why  it's  the  best  advertising,  because  it  is  also  the 
kind  which  brings  results  quickest. 

The  manufacturer  whose  advertisements  you  see  in 
the  magazines  wants  you  to  go  to  the  store  and  buy  his 
goods,  but  he  works  at  longer  range.  He  puts  an  adver- 
tisement in  magazines  (and  sometimes  in  newspapers) 
describing  his  goods.  He  tries  to  persuade  you  to  buy 
of  the  dealer  who  carries  his  goods  and  to  scorn  coldly 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  283 

the  ono  who  docs  not.  It  is  harder  to  persuade  you  to 
buy  {joods  advertised  in  nuiga/ines  than  it  is  those  ad- 
vertisetl  by  department  stores.  The  ma^^azine  comes  out 
but  once  a  month ;  you  may  forf?ct.  Tlie  newspaper 
comes  out  every  day  and  reminds  you  of  the  store  and 
its  poods.  The  store  is  within  reach,  and  while  the  store 
carries  a  {jreat  numy  of  the  poods  advertised  in  the 
nuipazines,  unU'ss  the  department  store  advertisement 
mentions  these  goods,  you  do  not  think  of  them  in  con- 
nection witli  that  particuhir  store. 

You  should  also  not  forget  that  the  department  store 
is  sometimes  antagonistic  to  the  manufacturer.  For  in- 
.stance.  ^Ir.  AVanamaker  docs  not  like  you  to  come  into 
his  store  and  ask  for  the  Iloosier  Kitchen  Cabinet.  He 
wants  you  to  come  in  and  a.sk  for  a  kitchen  cabinet. 
Then  he,  Mr.  Wanamaker,  wants  to  pick  out  the  kitchen 
cabinet  he  will  sell  you.  p]ven  though  he  sells  the 
Hoosier  Cabinet,  he  say?  to  ^Ir.  Iloosier:  "You  cannot 
put  your  name  on  the  cabinet  bccau.se  I  want  my  cus- 
tomers to  think  it  is  my  kitchen  cabinet.  I  do  not  want 
them  to  think  they  can  get  the  cabinet  anywhere  else." 
Also,  incidentally,  he  may  say:  "I  want  to  make  more 
money  on  the  cabinet  than  you  will  allow  me.  There- 
fore, I  will  get  another  cabinet  and  sell  it  as  the  Wana- 
maker  Cabinet." 

Therefore,  the  manufacturer  takes  space  in  your  fav- 
orite magazine  and  tells  you  all  about  his  kitchen  cabi- 
net, and  tries  to  impress  on  you  so  strongly  that  his 
cabinet  is  better  in  every  way;  that  it  has  more  cute 
little  covers  for  salt,  pepper,  vinegar,  more  hooks  for 
dishpan  and  the  milk  .strainer  than  ^Ir.  "Wanamaker's 
cabinet;  that  when  you  go  into  ^Ir.  Wanamaker's  store 
and  ask  for  Mr.  Iloosier 's  cabinet,  and  ^Ir.  Wanamaker 
says  he  hasn't  it  but  that  he  has  one  almost  just  like  it 


284      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

and  a  good  deal  better,  you  will  go  out  of  his  store  and 
go  somewhere  to  get  the  Hoosier  Cabinet,  even  if  you 
have  to  write  to  Mr,  Hoosier  and  have  him  send  it  to  you 
direct. 

Of  c(5urse,  I  only  mention  Mr.  Wanamaker  and  Mr. 
Hoosier  as  examples,  but  this  thing  is  repeated  by  manu- 
facturers and  storekeepers  all  over  the  country  every 
day. 

Now  I  don't  want  to  be  understood  as  blaming  you 
for  letting  Mr.  Wanamaker  persuade  you.  Possibly  you 
know  him  better  than  you  do  Mr.  Hoosier.  However,  it 
is  always  well  to  bear  in  mind  that  while  the  storekeeper 
is  a  very  selfish  person,  the  manufacturer  is  also  a  selfish 
person.  For  that  matter,  the  magazine  is  selfish,  and 
you  are  selfish.  You  want  to  get  the  best  thing  you  can 
for  your  money — the  very  best  cabinet  that  thirteen  dol- 
lars will  buy.  You  may  know  Mr.  Storekeeper  better 
than  you  do  Mr.  Manufacturer.  You  would  rather  put 
your  thirteen  dollars  on  Mr.  Storekeeper 's  selection.  On 
the  other  hand,  you  may  argue  that  Mr.  Storekeeper  is 
selling  the  cabinet  upon  which  he  makes  the  most  money, 
while  Mr.  Manufacturer  has  convinced  you  that  his  kit- 
chen cabinet  is  more  nearly  worth  thirteen  dollars  than 
Mr.  Storekeeper's. 

§8 

Also,  you  must  remember  that  when  that  advertise- 
ment appears  in  your  favorite  magazine,  the  magazine 
is  indorsing  Mr.  Manufacturer.  It  is  saying  that  it  be- 
lieves that  Mr.  IManufacturer  has  made  and  is  selling 
the  best  kitchen  cabinet  he  can  for  the  money,  and  that 
he  is  telling  the  truth  about  it,  and  that  when  Mr.  Store- 
keeper persuades  you  to  take  some  other  cabinet,  he  is 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  285 

substituting,  which  is  the  cue  for  you  to  toss  your  chin 
in  the  air,  walk  out  of  the  store  and  go  somewhere  else 
to  get  it. 

Now  this  magazine  is  made  possible  by  the  support  of 
the  advertiser.  The  money  you  pay  for  it  is  not  enough 
to  pay  office  rent,  hire  editors,  artists,  writers  and  print- 
ers and  pay  postage  on  it  to  get  it  to  you.  So  the  adver- 
tiser buys  space  to  tell  you  his  story,  pays  the  bill  and 
makes  it  possible  for  the  editor  and  publisher  to  produce 
a  magazine  as  good  as  this  one  for  so  little  money.  The 
publisher  appreciates  the  fact  that  it  is  because  you 
read  the  magazine  that  the  advertiser  wants  to  advertise 
in  it.  He  also  appreciates  the  fact  that  he  is  introducing 
the  advertiser  to  you.  Therefore,  he  considers  himself 
responsible  for  the  kind  of  advertisers  he  introduces, 
and  in  this  indirect  way  he  indorses  the  advertising 
which  appears  on  his  pages.  The  publisher  doesn't  say, 
when  he  indorses  the  advertiser,  that  if  you  should  buy 
a  blue  suit  from  the  National  Cloak  &  Suit  Company, 
you  will  like  the  color  of  the  suit,  or  that  you  will  be 
just  as  well  satisfied  to  have  one  of  those  suits  with 
funny  short  coats  with  notches  cut  in  them,  as  you 
thought  you  would  when  you  looked  at  the  picture  in  the 
advertisement,  but  he  does  say  that  the  National  Cloak 
&  Suit  Company  will  send  you  just  the  suit  you  order, 
charge  you  just  what  they  said  they  would  charge,  that  it 
will  be  made  out  of  good  cloth  and  well  made,  and  that 
if  you  do  not  like  it,  they  will  take  it  back  and  give  you 
back  your  money.  If  he  did  not  believe  that,  he  would 
not  allow  the  National  Cloak  &  Suit  Company  to  put  an 
advertisement  in  his  magazine. 

So  there  you  have  the  responsibility  of  the  publisher  to 
the  reader  of  the  magazine  and  his  attitude  toward  the 
advertiser. 


286      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§9   • 

The  advertiser,  having  bought  space  in  the  magazine, 
worries  his  brain  to  think  of  the  best  way  to  tell  you  his 
story.  He  only  has  so  much  space ;  sometimes  it  is  very 
small.  If  he  is  a  large  advertiser — that  is,  if  he  spends 
a  great  deal  of  money  and  can  afford  to  take  a  whole 
page  in  each  of  the  magazines  he  uses  every  month — it 
is  easier  for  him  to  make  an  impression  on  you  than  if 
he  is  a  small  advertiser  and  can  only  afford  a  small  space 
in  a  very  few  magazines.  Somehow  all  of  these  adver- 
tisers in  some  way  get  the  attention  of  some  of  the  read- 
ers, and  everyone  who  is  successful  gets  enough  atten- 
tion to  make  his  business  profitable. 

You  who  buy  the  magazine  buy  it  primarily  to  read 
the  stories  and  articles  that  it  contains  and  to  look  at  the 
pictures.  AVhen  you  think  of  stories  and  articles  you 
think  of  those  that  are  written  at  the  request  of  the 
editor,  or  at  least  are  accepted  by  him,  and  the  pictures 
that  are  drawn  by  artists  paid  by  him.  You  do  not  think 
particularly  of  the  stories  that  are  written  by  the  adver- 
tising man  or  the  pictures  that  are  drawn  by  what  are 
called  the  "commercial"  artists,  but  before  you  get 
through  with  the  magazine  you  undoubtedly  look  over 
these  pages  and  are  attracted  by  some  of  these  adver- 
tisements, either  by  means  of  the  picture,  or  the  story, 
or  both.  Or  you  may  definitely  know  that  you  expect 
to  buy  very  soon  a  white-tiled,  glass-lined,  siphon-system 
refrigerator,  and  you  turn  over  the  pages  of  the  maga- 
zine to  see  if  anyone  wants  to  sell  a  porcelain-tiled  re- 
frigerator with  glass  shelves.  In  that  case  yqu  look 
only  at  refrigerator  advertisements.  While  you  are  do- 
ing this  you  may  see  an  advertisement  which  you  think 
is  an  advertisement  of  a  refrigerator,  and  it  may  turn 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  «87 

out  to  be  an  advertisemeut  of  Worcestershire  Sauce,  but 
before  it  is  too  late  to  rectify  the  iniKtake,  you  have 
matle  up  your  iniiul  that  you  want  Koine  Worcestershire 
Sauce  if  it  is  really  as  good  as  Mr.  Worcestershire  says 
it  is.  So  you  may  make  a  note  in  that  corner  of  your 
mind  where  you  keep  your  mental  shopping  list,  to  ask 
for  Won-estershire  Sauce  the  next  time  you  go  to  the 
grocery  store.  Passibly  by  this  time  you  have  forgotten 
that  you  started  out  to  find  an  enameled  refrigerator, 
and  see  a  picture  of  a  very  happy  party  riding  in  an 
automobile  that  can  be  bought  for  the  small  sum  of  nine 
hundre<l  dollars,  so  you  turn  down  a  leaf  at  that  page  to 
show  to  your  husband,  who  has  hinted  from  time  to  time 
that  if  he  could  get  an  automobile  cheap  enough  that 
would  work  easily  and  wouldn't  require  a  chauf- 
feur to  run  it,  and  if  he  wouldn't  have  to  pay  sev- 
eral hundred  dollars  for  keep  and  a  large  sum  for  re- 
pairs, he  would  buy  one  next  sununer.  So  you  see 
how  Mr.  Worcestershire  and  the  automobile  man  have 
both  advertised  and  reached  your  attention  when  you 
really  meant  to  look  at  nothinjr  but  refrigerator  adver- 
tisements. That  is  the  way  advertising  is  working  all 
the  time. 

You  take  a  seat  in  a  street  car.  and  on  account  of  not 
having  a  newspaper  to  read  and  because  nobody  hap- 
pens to  be  hanging  to  a  strap  in  front  of  you,  you  learn 
that  you  have  not  taken  a  box  of  candy  home  to  your 
wife  for  a  year. 

You  are  looking  over  your  newspaper  to  see  what  time 
the  curtain  goes  up  at  the  Hippodrome,  and  you  notice 
that  on  account  of  the  lateness  of  the  season  you  can 
get  pa.ssage  to  Bermuda  for  as  little  as  twenty-five  dol- 
lars. You  may  never  go  to  Bermuda  for  twenty-five 
dollars,  but  nevertheless  you  may  go  to  Bermuda  some 


^88      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

time  and  pay  more,  for  the  attractive  picture  of  the  St. 
George  Hotel  lingers  in  your  mind. 


§  10 

The  same  Mr.  Appel  who  expressed  the  idealization  of 
department  store  advertising  quoted  earlier  in  this  chap- 
ter, thus  describes  the  many  things  to  be  considered  in 
preparing  such  an  advertisement : 

"I  am  about  to  write  an  advertisement,"  says  Mr.  Appel. 
"It  must  sell  $100,000  of  furniture  in  one  day. 

"I  examine  the  furniture.  It  is  good.  I  inspect  the  prices. 
They  are  right.  I  survey  the  set-out  of  the  furniture  on  the 
floors.  It  is  well  made.  I  inquire  about  the  selling-staff.  It 
is  well  chosen,  well  trained,  all  its  members  on  edge  and 
primed  for  the  day. 

"I  survey  the  field  of  battle — the  territory  from  which  the 
customers  will  come. 

"I  put  down  on  paper  a  list  of  the  newspapers  that  cover 
this  field,  noting  the  quantity  and  quality  of  their  circula- 
tions. 

"And  then — ^my  head  still  speaking — I  diagram  by  plan  as 
follows : 

"1.  I  classify  the  mass  readers  of  the  several  newspapers, 
if  they  can  be  placed  into  classes,  according  to  intelligence, 
capacity  to  buy,  taste  as  to  furniture,  and  general  inclination 
to  trade  at  my  store. 

"2.  Select  the  kind  of  furniture  to  be  advertised  in  each 
newspaper  according  to  this  classification. 

"3.  Write  ad.vertisements  to  appeal  to  the  readers  of  each 
newspaper  so  classified. 

"4.  Write  these  advertisements  fully  but  not  fulsomely; 
tersely  but  not  tensely;  honestly  but  not  boastfully  so. 

"Having  done  this  the  field  of  battle  lines  up  something 
Uke  this: 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  289 

"Population  to  be  attacked 2,000,000  families 

Newspapers  to  be  used  in  the  at- 
tack (including  small  suburban 
papei*s)   35 

Total  circulation  of  these  news- 
papers    2,150,000 

Divided  into  these  classes : 

Newspapei-s  of  highest  grade 
(highest  in  quality,  lowest  in 
quantity)    150,000 

Newspapers  of  second  grade  (sec- 
ond in  quality,  second  in  quan- 
tity)      1,000,000 

Newspapers  of  third  grade  (third 

in  quality,  first  in  quantity) 1,000,000 

"Then  I  try  to  figure  the  number  of  readers  of  each  class 
of  newspapers  who  will  read  the  advertisement. 

"Next  I  attempt  to  figure  how  many  of  these  readers  of  the 
advertisement  will  respond  to  it. 

"In  attempting  this  last  calculation,  I  take  into  considera- 
tion the  character  of  the  store  that  is  advertising;  the  charac- 
ter of  the  merchandise  being  advertised;  the  character  of  the 
advertisement  itself  (and  of  preceding  advertisements — in- 
quiring whether  they  established  or  destroyed  confidence) ;  the 
accessibility  of  the  store;  the  demand  (at  this  time)  for  furni- 
ture; the  general  prosperity  of  the  times  and  the  community; 
the  character  of  each  class  of  newspapers  as  to  general  relia- 
bility, the  kind  of  advertising  they  carrj',  and  the  accuracy 
and  decency  of  the  news  and  editorial  policy." 

A  graduate  of  the  greatest  department  store  in  the 
West,  specifically  ^Ir.  Selfridge  of  Marshall  Field  & 
Company,  invaded  London  five  j'ears  ago  and  built  a 
great  store  along  American  lines  but  with  a  certain 
English  accent  to  it.  Selfridge 's  introduced  many  novel- 
ties to  the  astonished  Londoners,  not  the  least  of  which 


290      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

was  a  new  kind  of  advertising  for  department  stores — 
new,  that  is,  not  merely  to  London,  but  to  the  world. 
The  fifth  anniversary  was  duly  commemorated  this  year 
with  another  series  of  newspaper  page  advertisements 
similar  to  those  which  opened  the  store.  Two  of  these 
are  reproduced  with  comments  upon  their  unique  fea- 
tures. 

§  11 

Next  to  the  department  stores,  the  largest  retail  ad- 
vertisers are  the  clothing  stores.  The  clothing  store  ad- 
vertiser does  not  have  the  same  variety  that  is  offered 
by  the  department  store,  but  in  itself  this  advertising  is 
often  carried  very  far.  One  large  retail  clothing  store, 
which  maintains  three  different  branches  in  New  York 
City,  has  done  for  years  retail  advertising  which  has  a 
national  reputation.  This  store  is  known  as  Rogers, 
Peet  Company,  and  the  Rogers-Peet  style  of  advertising 
would  be  recognized  by  anyone  familiar  with  advertis- 
ing. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  that  there  is  not  and  never  was 
any  member  of  the  firm  bearing  either  the  name  of 
Rogers  or  of  Peet.  The  men  behind  this  business,  for 
some  reason,  in  vented,  the  euphonious  name,  "Rogers, 
Peet  Company,"  and  under  that  name  the  business  has 
grown  to  large  proportions.  Adopting  a  fictitious  name 
for  a  big  business  is  unusual  in  this  country,  although  in 
England  it  is  a  very  common  thing  indeed.  Another 
very  noteworthy  instance  in  the  advertising  world  is 
that  of  Perry  Mason  &  Company,  for  over  eighty  years 
the  publishers  of  the  Youth's  Companion.  When  the 
Youth's  Companion  was  started  it  was  such  a  trivial 
thing,  and  had  so  little  chance  of  success,  that  its  foun- 


i.ooi  ,«>•  B  a 


SELFRIDGE'S  =nw 


fc>ELKRii)(.K- Ad. — One  of  a  series  of  full  page  newspaper  advertise- 
ments used  to  celebrate  the  fifth  anniversary  of  the  establish- 
ment of  an  American  department  store  in  the  heart  of  I^oudon. 
Each  design  of  the  series  was  drawn  by  a  well-known  artist 
in  line  drawing.  This  series  resembles  in  scope  and  style  the 
original  series  used  five  years  before  at  the  opening  of  the 
Btore. 


292      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

ders  decided  to  do  business  under  a  fictitious  name.  As 
the  years  rolled  by  the  publication  of  the  Youth's  Com- 
panion became  the  largest  enterprise  of  its  founders, 
and  proved  a  very  profitable  one,  but  in  all  that  time 
and  up  till  now  the  business  name  of  the  house  has  been 
Perry  Mason  &  Company,  although  no  one  of  that  name 
has  ever  been  connected  with  the  business. 

To  return  to  the  advertising  of  Rogers,  Peet  Com- 
pany, this  house  is  famous  not  only  for  its  unique  news- 
paper advertising,  but  also  for  its  printed  matter.  A 
great  many  catalogs,  booklets,  folders  and  bundle  tickets 
are  used  in  the  advertising  of  the  three  stores.  Street- 
car advertising  and  even  poster  work  is  indulged  in. 
Everything  that  goes  out  of  the  store,  including  the 
boxes,  bundles  and  envelopes,  is  utilized  for  attractive, 
refined  and  dignified  advertising.  By  tricks  of  type  and 
designing  a  certain  definite  individuality  is  given  to  each 
piece  of  advertising,  so  that,  however  diversified  the  use 
to  which  it  is  put,  it  can  be  recognized  at  a  glance. 
This  idea  is  one  that  is  gradually  appealing  to  more  ad- 
vertisers as  time  goes  on.  To  accomplish  it  successfully 
requires  considerable  ability. 


§  12 

The  retail-clothing  advertiser  of  the  small  town  is 
greatly  helped  by  what  is  known  as  ready-made  adver- 
tisements. These  are  advertisements  which  have  been 
designed  and  written  by  the  advertising  department  of 
a  wholesale  clothier.  The  wholesale  clothier,  in  consid- 
eration of  the  purchase  of  his  clothing  by  a  retailer,  will 
supply  that  retailer  with  a  set  of  ready-made  advertise- 
ments, consisting  of  electrotypes  of  attractive  cuts  and 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  29S 

the  reading  matter  to  go  with  them.  The  retail  clothier 
will  buy  space  iu  his  loi-al  newspap«>rs  and  pay  for  it 
himself,  using  the  cuts  and  copy  furnished  by  the  manu- 
facturer, signing  it,  however,  with  his  own  name  and  ad- 
dress. 

By  such  plans  as  this  the  advertising  of  the  retail 
clothier  has  been  made  a  great  deal  better  than  that  of 
the  ordinary  run  of  retail  advertising  in  the  same  town. 
So  successful  has  this  plan  been  in  securing  a  great  deal 
of  advertising  for  the  manufacturer,  that  it  has  now 
been  adopted  in  other  lines.  Ready-made  advertisements 
are  furnished  by  manufacturers  of  shoes,  furniture,  car- 
pets, underwear,  hats,  gloves,  ties  and  other  things.  The 
design  and  advertising  furnished  by  the  manufacturer 
always  bear  strongly  upon  the  merits  of  his  own  product, 
of  course.  Large  retailers  often  carry  the  products  of 
several  manufacturers,  from  all  of  whom  they  obtain 
cuts  and  advertisements  which  are  useful. 


§  13 

Retail  advertising  depends  entirely  upon  direct  re- 
sults. A  retailer  can  put  an  advertisement  in  a  news- 
paper and  know  when  his  store  opens  the  next  morning 
whether  it  has  paid  or  not.  The  general  advertiser 
knows  only  in  a  general  way,  by  the  volume  of  business. 
The  retailer  knows  by  the  actual  number  of  requests  for 
a  given  article  advertised  at  a  given  price.  In  its  direct 
results  retail  advertising  bears  a  close  relation  to  mail- 
order advertising.  The  same  quality  of  direct  appeal  is 
required  to  make  it  successful.  The  possibilities  of  suc- 
cessful retail  advertising  are  almost  unlimited,  but  its 
possibilities  are  seldom  realized,  because  a  man  running 


294      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

a  retail  store  in  a  small  town  is  not  the  man  who  appre- 
ciates the  great  possibilities  of  successful  advertising. 
"When  he  is,  he  soon  ceases  to  be  where  he  is. 

It  will  be  noticed  that  some  towns  and  cities  have 
better  retail  advertising  than  others.  In  a  town  where 
the  retail  advertising  is  good,  it  is  all  good.  This  is  due 
frequently  to  some  very  enterprising  newspaper  which 
has  fostered  and  encouraged  good  advertising.  Some 
newspapers — and  not  all  of  them  are  located  in  large 
cities — ^possess  regularly  organized  advertising  depart- 
ments, which  are  placed  at  the  service  of  the  retailer  to 
prepare  his  copy  and  designs  for  the  local  newspapers. 
This,  too,  has  its  effect  in  improving  the  advertising  that 
is  done. 

§  14 

Outside  of  specific  instances,  such  as  unusually  suc- 
cessful retail  advertisers,  the  grp.at  bulk  of  retail  adver- 
tising is  comparatively  unimportant.  This  means  that 
the  individual  advertising  is  not  very  good  and  is  fre- 
quently very  unsuccessful.  Taken  as  a  whole,  however, 
the  retail  advertising  in  this  country  is  the  largest  and 
most  important  advertising  done. 

The  importance  of  retail  advertising  depends  upon 
the  number  of  people  engaged  in  it.  There  are  not  more 
than  a  thousand  national  advertisers,  large  and  small, 
while  there  are  hundreds  of  thousands  of  retail  adver- 
tisers. It  is  on  this  account  that  most  of  the  books 
written  about  advertising  have  been  books  devoted  to 
the  especial  problems  of  the  retailer.  There  have  been 
more  than  a  dozen  of  these  books,  no  one  of  which  does 
more  than  to  touch  upon  the  subject  of  general  advertis- 
ing, if  it  does  that.    A  book  produced  with  the  inten- 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  295 

tion  of  helping  general  advertisers  only  would  have  a 
small  sale.  The  great  majority  of  advertising  Ixwks 
have  been  written  to  make  money  and.  therefore,  have 
been  sold  on  the  theory  that  they  are- helpful  to  tlie 
retailer — and  they  generally  are. 


§  15 

The  faet  that  the  advertising  problem  of  each  retailer 
is  r('pea1(>(l  in  eaeh  different  town  has  made  it  possible 
to  build  up  what  is  known  as  syndicate  work.  An  adver- 
tising .syndicate  supplies  copy  and  designs  to  retailers  at 
a  very  snmll  eost  by  .selling  the  same  cut  and  the  same 
advertisement  in  each  town.  The  advertising  of  a  re- 
tailer does  not  generally  eonlliet  with  the  adverti.sing  of 
a  man  in  the  same  line  of  business  in  the  next  town. 
There  are.  for  instance,  forty  thousand  hardware  dealers 
in  til  is  country,  a  great  numy  of  whom  adverti.se.  A 
syndicate  can  afford  to  pay  a  good  price  for  a  design  of 
a  sulTicictitly  general  natui-e  as  to  tit  almost  any  store. 
This  design,  together  with  the  copy,  is  sold  to  as  many 
retailers  as  will  buy  it,  electrotypes  of  the  cut  being 
furnished.  The  local  retail  dealer  either  uses  the  copy 
as  written,  or  changes  it  to  fit  some  particular  case  in 
his  own  announcements. 

Service  like  this  has  been  sold  for  as  little  as  twenty- 
five  cents  for  each  advertisement,  but  the  better  sort  of 
service  costs  from  fifty  cents  to  a  dollar  per  advertise- 
ment. A  retailer  contracts  for  so  many  cuts  with  copy 
per  week,  and  these  are  received,  not  all  at  once,  but 
from  time  to  time.  This  is  one  reason  why  the  retail 
advertising  of  the  country  has  been  so  greatly  improved 
in  the  last  fifteen  years. 


296      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  16 

In  the  last  ten  years  nearly  every  kind  of  retail  busi- 
ness has  been  advertised.  Local  corporations  holding  a 
monopoly  for  supplying  some  of  the  necessities  of  life, 
have  adopted  advertising  to  increase  the  number  of 
their  customers,  even  when  there  is  no  competition.  The 
newspapers  are  used  by  gas  companies,  telephone  com- 
panies, electric  lighting  companies,  water  companies, 
various  street  railway  and  rapid  transit  lines  and 
other  interests  not  at  one  time  considered  as  adver- 
tisers. 

This  development  of  advertising  has  become  very  in- 
teresting, and  it  has  been  very  successful.  When  there 
is  only  one  gas  company  in  a  town,  everybody  who  wishes 
to  use  gas  must  go  to  that  company,  but  in  every  town 
there  are  a  large  number  of  people  who  persist  in  burn- 
ing kerosene,  who  can  be  persuaded  to  adopt  gas.  There 
are  people  who  have  gas  in  their  houses  for  illuminating, 
who  have  not  thought  of  it  for  cooking.  Intelligent  ad- 
vertising for  gas  consumption  skillfully  teaches  people 
that  it  is  better  to  cook  with  gas.  Some  companies  offer 
a  gas-range  free.  Some  offer  to  equip  a  house  with  gas- 
jets.  Others  rent  a  gas-range  for  a  nominal  sum.  In 
various  ways  these  companies  extend  their  business  by 
advertising,  despite  the  fact  that  they  have  no  competi- 
tion. Such  advertising  may  be  classed  as  retail  advertis- 
ing. 


§  17 


This  book  cannot  go  into  the  many  details  of  retail 
advertising,  however  important.    Many  books  have  been 


In  the  Bell  Democracy 


Membership  in  the  telephone 
democracy  of  the  Bell  System  means 
equal  opportunity  for  every  man, 
no  matter  who  he  is  or  where  he  is. 

Each  member  of  this  Bell  democ- 
racy has  the  same  chance  of  com- 
munication, limited  only  by  the 
distance  the  voice  can  be  carried. 

However  remote,  whether  in  the 
adobe  house  on  the  Rio  Grande,  on 
the  Montana  sheep  ranch  or  in  the 
isolated  New  England  farm  house, 
the  Bell  telephone  is  an  open  door- 


F'rom  each  Bell  outpost  run  lines 
that  connect  it  with  the  central  office 
— that  nerve  center  of  the  local 
system. 

Long  distance  and  toll  lines  con- 
nect these  nerve  centers  and  furnish 
clear  tracks  for  telephone  talk 
throughout  the  land. 

12,000.000  miles  of  wire  are  the 
highways  over  which  20,000.000 
telephone  talks  are  carried  daily. 

The  Bell  System  binds  together 
the  social  and  business  activities  of 
a  people  in  a  shoulder-to-shoulder 
march  of  progress. 


way  to  the  Universal  Bell  System. 

American  Telephone  and  Telegraph  Company 
And  Associated   Companies 

One  Voticv  One  System  Universal  Service 

mil 

Telephone  Ad. — An  example  of  goodwill  advertising  at  its  best. 
This  is  one  of  a  series  that  has  been  running  for  some  time 
for  the  purpose  of  producing  a  bettor  understanding  between 
a  great  corporation  and  its  customers. 


What  he  and  his  successors  did  for  you 

Milk  is  the  most  necessary  single  article  of  food  in  the  world, 
but  milk  is  more  susceptible  to  contamination  than  almost  any 
other  food.  It  is  essential  that  milk  should  be  plentiful  and 
accessible,  but  it  is  equally  essential  that  it  should  be  pure. 


The  man  uho  6rM  rrjiizcd  thrsc  facts  and 
then  invented  the  processes  \Oiich  mndc  it' 
)v>s&)ble  for  the  entire  world  to  have  pure  milk 
at  any  time,  in  any  quantity  and  under  all 
conditions,  was  Gail  Borden.  He  invented 
condensed  milk,  he  introduced  the  system 
w  hith  takes  care  of  the  milk  from  the  cow  to 
your  cup  in  its  pristine  purity,  a  system  pre- 
ceding  strict    goveromental   regulations   but 


found  in  accord  with  them  when  introduced. 
Gail  Borden  left  behind  him  an  organization 
that  has  grown  to  be  the  largest  in  the  world 
for  the  handling  of  milk,  an  organization 
inspired  by  his  7eal,  his  honesty  and  his  ability, 
an  organization  which  has  made  his  name  a  syn- 
onym for  milk — fresh — condensed— evaporated 
—cultured— malted— eve r>-  form  of  milk,  but 
always  pure  and  always  good. 


Border 


MILK 


Bord<'n-i  f  jkI<-  Bnnd  ConJe^r 


BORDEN'S  CONDENSED  MILK  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK,  L'.  S.  A. 


BoEDEN  Advebtisement  Caeeying  the  Institutional  Idea. 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  299 

written  on  this  subject  alone,  to  which  the  reader  is 
referred  for  a  fuller  understanding  of  the  details  of  the 
subjeet. 

We  are  more  particularly  concerned  with  the  placing 
of  retail  advertising  in  its  proper  relation  to  national 
advertising.  The  most  important  recent  development  of 
this  relation  is  the  large  amount  of  good  advertising  ma- 
terial placed  at  the  disposal  of  retail  stores  by  manu- 
facturers. 

This  advertising  material  while  intended  to  advertise 
and  sell  the  goods  of  the  manufacturer  who  prepares  it, 
is  equally  clever  in  being  designed  to  advertise  the  deal- 
er's retail  store.  The  service  usually  consists  of  adver- 
tiseniiMits  written,  illustrated  and  put  in  type,  furnished 
in  electrotyped  form,  so  that  the  dealer  can  place  them 
in  his  own  local  paper,  and  of  various  printed  things 
such  as  window  cards,  store  cards,  envelope  stufTers, 
bundle  tickets,  price  tickets  and  street-car  cards,  some- 
times with  the  dealer's  name  upon  them,  and  sometimes 
without,  but  for  the  distribution  of  which  through  the 
mails  or  for  the  insertion  of  which  in  newspapers  or  in 
street  cars  the  dealer  is  expected  to  pay. 

A  portfolio  of  such  dealer's  helps,  planned  for  the 
advertising  of  the  various  hats  made  by  the  Crofut  & 
Knapp  Company,  is  reproduced  here,  page  by  page,  as 
the  best  illustration  of  this  method  of  intensive  cultiva- 
tion of  the  retail  field. 

This  portfolio  may  be  taken  as  an  example  rather  than 
as  a  typical  one.  There  are  a  hundred  ways  of  doing  this 
work. 

There  always  exists  the  antagonism  between  the  dealer 
and  the  manufacturer.  It  is  only  by  pressure  of  general 
advertising  that- the  dealer  is  induced  to  add  his  own 
individual  advertising  to  trade-marked  goods. 


300      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§18 

We  know  of  no  better  way  of  concluding  this  subject 
than  pointing  out  the  attitude  of  the  advertising  world 
to-day  upon  this  question  of  the  relation  of  the  retailer 
and  manufacturer  to  advertising  and  to  quote  in  full 
an  advertising  editorial  published  in  The  Outlook. 

The  Shibboleth 

You  will  recall  the  story  of  the  Gileadites  who  posted  sen- 
tries at  the  fords  of  the  River  Jordan  and  submitted  all  comers 
to  a  test. 

The  Ephraimites  were  easily  detected  because  they  could 
not  pronounce  the  word  "Shibboleth"  but  gave  it  "Sibboleth." 
Ever  since  the  word  "Shibboleth"  has  been  a  synonym  for  a 
crucial  test. 

The  Shibboleth  of  modem  storekeeping  is  the  selling  of 
advertised  goods.  Shrewd  and  farsighted  political  economists 
believe  that  the  trade-mark  upon  goods  bought  and  sold  in 
the  marketplace  protects  the  purchaser  because  it  fixes  respon- 
sibility for  the  origin  of  the  goods  and  is  an  implied  eon- 
tract  to  keep  up  the  quality,  and  further  creates  a  definite 
standard  of  value  for  a  definite  price. 

Some  dealers  are  prone  to  believe  that  their  interest  lies 
in  another  way.  They  think  that  selling  advertised  goods  un- 
duly exalts  the  manufacturer  at  their  own  expense.  They 
insist  that  it  is  not  to  their  interest  to  give  to  the  manufac- 
turer of  national,  trade-marked,  advertised  goods  the  prestige 
of  their  local  standing. 

Of  course,  it  is  true  that  the  dealer  who  habitually  sells 
advertised  goods  is  giving  those  goods  an  additional  standing 
and  that  it  is  harder  for  him  to  retreat  from  his  position 
and  substitute  other  goods  for  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  he  benefits  because  advertised  goods 
are  definitely  known  goods.    If  they  are  advertised,  he  is  apt 


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SELLING  AT  RETAIL  319 

to  have  frequent  <*a!l8  for  thoni,  thus  nmkinp:  the  business 
more  stable.  Beins;  known  to  his  customers,  they  are  asked  for 
by  name,  which  saves  time  on  the  part  of  his  salesmen.  Finally, 
advertised  goods  enhance  and  raise  the  standard  of  the  store 
which  sells  them. 

There  is  a  darker  side  to  this  question  of  not  selling  adver- 
tised goods,  however.  The  dealer  who  refuses  to  do  so  lays 
himself  open  to  the  suspicion  of  preferring  to  sell  unadver- 
tised  goods  because  neither  the  quality  nor  the  price  is  known 
to  his  customers.  They  are  ai)t  to  think,  and  sometimes 
rightly,  that  he  prefers  to  sell  a  lower  grade  of  quality  at  a 
higher  price  and  make  a  larger  profit  than  he  can  from 
selling  trade-marked  and  advertised  goods. 

By  far  the  larger  percentage  of  stores,  or  at  any  rate,  the 
larger  volume  of  business  is  now  done  upon  advertised  goods 
to  the  manifest  benefit  of  the  consumer. 

Your  interest  in  this  subject,  as  a  reader  of  The  Outlook, 
an  avowea  common  carrier  of  advertisers'  announcements,  is 
in  determining,  first,  whether  or  not  it  is  to  your  advantage 
to  buy  advertised  goods,  and  second,  whether  the  dealer  that 
carries  them  and  sells  them  is  better  worth  your  patronage 
than  one  who  does  not. 

Advertising  has  raised  the  standard  of  the  goods  advertised. 
A  thousand  instances  might  be  given.  Two  or  three  will  suf- 
fice. The  conveniently  shaped  cake  of  toilet  soap  which  you 
use,  and  which  is  the  legitimate  descendant  of  the  square, 
sharp-cornered  cake  sawed  off  from  a  bar  of  eastile  soap,  was 
first  introduced  in  order  to  give  a  talking  point  to  adver- 
tising. 

The  wonderful  advance  made  in  the  manufacture  of  men's 
clothing  is  directly  traceable  to  a  desire  of  manufacturers  to 
have  a  better  story  to  tell  in  their  advertising. 

All  manufacturers  who  advertise  are  studying  their  product 
in  the  hope  of  finding  some  improvement,  some  betterment, 
some  advantage  which  they  can  introduce  so  as  to  immedi- 
ately use  it  in  their  advertising  and  thus  gain  fresh  attention 
on  the  part  of  the  public. 


320      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Advertising  is  a  constant  stimulus  to  improve  the  product 
and  a  steadfast  guarantee  that  the  product  will  not  be  de- 
preciated. When  you  buy  advertised  goods  you  are  in  a  way 
dealing  with  the  manufacturer.  He  is  the  only  man  who 
can  guarantee  the  quality  of  the  goods. 

Look  over  a  long  list  of  transactions  and  see  whether  you 
have  not  acquired  a  certain  feeling  of  confidence  in  goods 
that  you  know  by  name  and  can  ask  for  by  name  and  which 
are  identified  by  a  familiar  trade-mark  put  there  by  the 
manufacturer  because  he  has  pride  in  his  product  and  wants 
you  to  recognize  it  and  know  it  when  you  come  to  buy  such  a 
product  again. 

The  dealer  who  refuses  to  sell  advertised  goods  is  refusing 
to  avail  himself  of  a  more  or  less  ready-made  market.  He  is 
losing  a  palpable  advantage,  and  unless  he  is  very  short- 
sighted he  must  be  making  up  for  that  loss  in  some  other 
way;  presumably,  and  the  suspicion  is  a  just  one,  at  your  ex- 
pense. 

When  a  dealer  refuses  to  sell  an  advertised  product  and 
sells  an  unknown  and  unidentified  one,  there  can  be  only 
one  reason  why  he  does  so.  He  makes  a  better  profit  on  the 
other  article.  Now  if  the  unknown  and  unidentified  product 
sells  at  the  same  price  as  the  advertised  one,  the  original  ar- 
ticle must  be  a  cheaper  one.  If  it  sells  for  more  and  is  no 
better,  then  if  you  pay  that  price  you  are  losing  an  advantage 
to  which  you  are  entitled. 

The  tendency  of  advertising  is  constantly  toward  staples. 
The  time  will  come  when  every  staple  article  that  we  use 
will  bear  the  brand  and  name  of  the  manufacturer. 

At  present  advertising  is  confined  to  only  a  few  lines,  and 
in  some  of  these  lines  there  are  numerous  representatives. 
This  is  due  to  the  imitative  instinct  of  the  manufacturer.  A 
soap  man  advertises  because  all  soap  men  advertise.  A  cork 
man  does  not  advertise  because  no  cork  man  has  advertised, 
although  corks  are  as  necessary  to  the  human  race  as  soap, 
and  corks  should  be  advertised  so  that  they  can  be  easily 
bought  by  name  in  any  convenient  store. 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  8*1 

Advertising  alone  does  not  make  the  products  good  or 
worthy  of  confidence,  but  advertising  brings  tlie  goods  out 
into  the  public  view,  identifies  them,  turns  upon  them  the 
searchlight  of  dealer,  advertising  medium  and  consumer,  and 
as  time  goes  o!i  those  products  which  survive  and  which 
are  accepted  by  the  columns  of  such  publications  as  The  Out- 
look will  be  found  worthy  of  the  confidence  of  the  user  at 
the  price  named. 

The  power  of  advertising  is  but  yet  little  realized.  Its 
real  work  has  only  begun.  It  means  that  the  lime  will 
come  when  advertising  will  be  the  jiower  by  which  every  {Nur- 
chaser  gets  his  or  her  money's  worth.  No  dealer  or  set  of 
dealers  can  stand  in  the  way  of  this  progress.  They  nuist 
read  the  handwriting  on  the  wall.  Sooner  or  later  the  dealer's 
store  will  be  a  systematized  distribution  point  for  the  manu- 
facturer's advertised  and  trade-marked  goods. 

Even  to-day  the  question  as  to  whether  or  not  the  retail 
store  Cannes  advertised  goods  is  a  touchstone  as  to  whether 
that  store  is  worth  the  confidence  and  trade  of  the  community. 


§  19 

It  requires  no  great  stretch  of  imagrination  to  consider 
mail-order  advertising  in  a  chapter  devoted  to  retail  ad- 
vertising. The  mail-order  business  is  selling  at  retail 
over  the  entire  country  from  one  central  store  by  means 
of  parcel  post  and  express.  The  mail-order  house  dif- 
fers from  the  department  store  in  that  its  customers  send 
orders  and  money  by  mail  instead  of  going  in  person  to 
the  store.  ]\Iail-order  advertising  is  considered  in  this 
book  because  it  is  a  phase  of  advertising  work,  and  as 
such  should  be  cla.ssified  and  defined.  But  mail-order 
advertising  does  not  tie  up  with  national  advertising 
in  the  same  way  that  ordinary  retail  advertising  does. 

The  mail-order  advertisers  are  of  two  kinds:  the  gen- 


322      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

eral  mail-order  business  by  which  every  conceivable  kind 
of  merchandise  is  sold  from  a  catalog  and  sent  by  mail 
(or  express)  to  the  purchaser;  and  the  advertiser  selling 
only  one  product  or  one  line  of  products.  National  ad- 
vertisers, selling  their  goods  through  the  usual  retail 
channels,  who  offer  to  sell  by  mail  in  case  the  local 
dealer  does  not  carry  the  goods,  are  not  mail-order  ad- 
vertisers. 

§  20 

Two  mail-order  department  stores  have  built  up  busi- 
nesses so  large  that  they  represent  between  them  nearly 
all  the  volume  of  this  method  of  selling.  They  are  Mont- 
gomery "Ward  &  Company  and  Sears,  Roebuck  &  Com- 
pany. Both  are  located  in  Chicago,  but  the  latter  is 
considering  a  branch  in  New  York.  Each  issues  a  mam- 
moth catalog,  weighing  about  four  pounds,  amounting 
to  over  a  thousand  pages,  and  distributed  by  a  large 
volume  of  advertising.  In  that  catalog  are  described, 
pictured  (if  possible),  and  priced,  everything  that  a 
person  could  possibly  buy,  except  a  few  perishables,  such 
as  milk,  ice  or  fresh  vegetables.  This  merchandise  is 
priced  lower  than  can  be  done  in  most  retail  stores,  be- 
cause the  mail-order  house  buys  of  the  manufacturer, 
usually  on  very  favorable  terms,  and  only  one  profit 
needs  to  be  added.  A  great  degree  of  efficiency  is  ob- 
tained which  lowers  the  overhead  cost  of  doing  business. 
The  result  is  that  many  people  patronize  these  institu- 
tions to  the  disadvantage  of  most  local  retailers.  This 
has  caused  so  much  feeling  that  publications  carrying  the 
advertising  of  goods  sold  through  retail  stores  have 
found  it  politic  not  to  accept  mail-order  advertising. 

This  discrimination  applies  only  to  the  general  mail- 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  323 

order  houses.  The  same  publications  accept  business  of. 
specially  mail-order  houses  to  some  extent,  and  watches, 
jewelry,  made-to-order  clothes,  books,  as  well  as  a  long 
list  of  small,  patented  novelties,  are  sold  in  this  way. 

§  21 

Mail-order  advertising  resembles  general  advertising 
in  that  it  is  spread  all  over  the  country,  but  it  resembles 
retail  advertising  in  that  the  goods  advertised  are  sold 
direct,  the  mails  being  the  medium  of  transmission  of 
the  advertisement  of  the  goods,  of  the  catalog  still  fur- 
ther describing  them,  of  the  money-order  to  pay  for 
them,  and  finally  of  the  goods  themselves,  when  small 
enough  to  be  sent  by  mail,  but  otherwise  they  go  by  ex- 
press or  freight. 

The  mail-order  business,  supplying  as  it  does  a  real 
need,  has  grown  to  mammoth  proportions.  Many  large 
houses  are  engaged  in  it,  and  the  volume  of  their  busi- 
ness as  well  as  the  amount  of  their  advertising  compares 
with  that  of  the  largest  general  advertisers.  This  ad- 
vertising does  not,  as  a  rule,  appear  in  the  magazines 
that  we  know  as  such,  though  some  of  them,  and  espe- 
cially the  weeklies  and  women's  papers,  carry  a  certain 
amount  of  mail-order  advertising. 

§  22 

The  great  bulk  of  such  advertising  is  to  be  found  in 
the  mail-order  papers,  publications  which  reach  espe- 
cially the  class  of  people  living  in  remote  and  not  easily 
accessible  parts  of  the  country,  or  in  country  districts 
and  on  farms  near  villages  not  well  supplied  with  stores. 


324)      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Such  people  depend  upon  the  mail-order  houses  for  a 
large  number  of  things  they  cannot  buy  in  the  village 
general  store,  or  if  they  can  buy  them,  not  at  such  low 
prices.  These  people  make  up  the  regular  readers  of  the 
mail-order  papers  and  are  the  regular  customers  of  the 
mail-order  houses.  The  general  advertiser  advertises  to 
reach  the  consumer,  but  his  goods  are  delivered  by  the 
retailer  through  his  own  store.  The  mail-order  adver- 
tiser advertises  to  reach  the  consumer,  but  delivers  the 
goods  himself  by  mail,  express  or  freight. 

The  mail-order  business  stands  for  a  great  expansion 
of  the  methods  of  a  retail  store  wherein  a  tremendous 
volume  of  business  covering  the  entire  country,  and  the 
privilege  of  buying  goods  in  factory  lots  as  it  were,  have 
made  it  possible  to  offer  prices  which  even  the  big  de- 
partment stores  are  scarcely  able  to  meet.  The  problem 
of  a  mail-order  business  is  to  defray,  not  only  the  cost  of 
the  goods,  but  also  the  cost  of  selling  them,  which  in- 
cludes advertising-  in  a  large  number  of  mail-order 
papers. 

The  introduction  of  rural  free  delivery  has  greatly 
stimulated  the  business  of  selling  goods  by  mail.  Rural 
free  delivery  offers  a  double  advantage :  first,  the  dis- 
tribution, promptly  and  direct  to  the  subscriber,  of  vari- 
ous publications  carrying  mail-order  advertising,  and 
second,  the  distribution  of  goods  small  enough  to  be 
delivered  by  mail,  which  comprise  most  of  the  goods 
sold  by  mail-order  advertising. 


§  23 

The  possibilities  of  the  mail-order  business  are  made 
very  clear  by  a  few  statistics  from  the  last  census.    The 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  8«6 

1910  census  shows  that  49,348,883  or  53.6  per  cent,  of 
the  peoph>  of  the  United  States  live  in  villages  or  on 
farms.  The  usual  allowance  of  five  people  to  a 
family  gives  9,869,776  homes.  Into  every  ohe  of 
these  homes  from  which  any  business  could  be  ex- 
pected it  is  safe  to  say  that  at  least  one  mail-order  paper 
penetrates. 

The  regular  agricultural  papers  have  always  carried  a 
great  deal  of  mail-order  advertising,  but  the  better 
papers  of  this  class  are  now  reaching  after  the  regular 
national  advertisers,  and  curtailing  the  straight  mail- 
order business  as  a  consequence. 

]\Iail-order  papers  are  all  of  the  same  character.  They 
are  clean.  Their  reading  matter,  while  not  of  the  high- 
est literary  sort,  is  innocuous.  The  paper  upon  which 
they  are  printed  will  not  admit  of  half-tone  pictures. 
The  advertising  is  set  in  the  densest  possible  form,  so 
as  to  get  the  greatest  number  of  words  in  the  smallest 
amount  of  space.  The  chief  consideration  in  a  mail- 
order advertisement  is  to  get  a  full  description  of  the 
article  in  the  smallest  possible  space.  This  is  the  sort 
of  advertising  in  which  an  explicit  description  and  the 
price  must  always  be  given.  The  more  complete  and. 
enthusiastic  the  description,  the  larger  the  returns  from 
the  advertising.  A  well-known  mail-order  expert  has 
said  that  there  are  only  two  sizes  for  a  mail-order  adver- 
tisement. It  should  either  be  large  enough  to  tell  the 
entire  story  or  small  enough  to  induce  the  reader  to  send 
for  a  full  descriptive  circular. 

There  is  the  widest  possible  difference  between  gen- 
eral advertising  for  mere  publicity  and  mail-order  ad- 
vertising for  direct  results.  The  general  advertiser  is 
merely  trying  to  stamp  his  name  and  trade-mark  upon 
the  minds  of  a  large  number  of  people,  so  that  when 


S26      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

they  want  his  article  they  will  be  induced  to  ask  for  it 
at  their  stores. 

§  24 

The  writing  of  successful  mail-order  advertising  is  just 
as  much  a  specialty  as  the  writing  of  advertising  to  ex- 
ploit the  goods  of  a  manufacturer  through  the  ordinary 
channels  of  trade.  It  requires  especially  an  innate  and 
unusual  knowledge  of  human  nature.  Such  advertising 
appeals  to  ordinary,  commonplace  people.  It  should  not 
aim  above  their  heads.  It  is  simply  as  complete  and 
enthusiastic  a  description  of  the  article  advertised  as  can 
be  given,  to  which  is  added  an  illustration  more  or  less 
accurate,  and  the  price.  Then  follows  explicit  and,  what 
would  seem  to  many  people,  unnecessary  detailed  infor- 
mation as  to  the  way  of  sending  money.  It  should  be 
borne  in  mind  that  the  kind  of  people  who  answer  mail- 
order advertising  are  not  used  to  the  ordinary  methods 
of  business.  The  mail  of  a  house  of  this  kind  shows 
how  large  a  proportion  of  its  customers  are  unused  to 
the  simplest  details  of  sending  money  by  mail. 

The  man  who  can  write  mail-order  advertising  best  is 
the  man  who  reads  the  letters  of  the  people  who  buy 
his  goods.  He  soon  knows  exactly  what  terms  to  use  in 
describing  any  given  article.  This  is  something  that  it 
is  difficult  for  the  ordinary  advertising  writer  to  do  un- 
less he  has  had  actual  experience. 


25 


The  retailer  in  such  goods  always  considers  the  catalog 
house  as  his  greatest  enemy.    He  has  the  same  feeling 


SELLING  AT  RETAIL  327 

toward  it  that  the  small  retailer  had  toward  the  largo 
department  store.  And  in  each  ease,  of  course,  the 
triumph  of  the  concern  witli  the  large  capital,  great 
buying  power  and  sweeping  advertising  is  inevit- 
able. 


§  26 

Mail-order  advertising,  as  we  have  seen,  brings  in  a 
large  number  of  replies,  about  equally  divided  between 
those  who  send  cash  with  the  order  and  those  who  write 
for  further  information.  All  large  mail-order  houses 
have  a  catalog  which  is  mentioned  in  each  advertise- 
ment. This  catalog  is  mailed  sometimes  free,  and  some- 
times in  return  for  postage,  and  from  this  catalog  cus- 
tomers continue  to  order,  in  many  cases  for  several  years. 
The  amount  paid  for  the  catalog  is  generally  refunded 
on  the  first  order. 

A  certain  percentage  of  all  inquirers  fail  to  purchase 
for  a  number  of  reasons.  They  may  be  idle  curiosity 
seekers,  or  they  may  not  have  been  sufficiently  con- 
vinced. All  progressive  mail-order  houses  have  a  system 
of  form  letters  which  are  mailed  promptly  to  all  inquir- 
ers after  a  certain  time.  In  some  cases,  especially  when 
the  article  which  drew  out  the  inquiry  is  of  considerable 
value,  a  follow-up  system  is  kept  up  for  a  number  of 
times  and  always  brings  in  a  certain  percentage  of  or- 
ders which  would  not  otherwise  have  been  secured.  It 
is  also  true  that  customers  who  buy  articles  by 
mail  are  apt  to  be  steady  customers.  Houses  which 
make  a  business  of  this  sort  of  work  keep  these 
names  and  send  circulars  inclosing  tempting  offers  from 
time  to  time. 


328      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

§  27 

An  advertiser  who  has  sold  a  popular  book  by  mail 
for  a  number  of  years  said  that  it  took  him  at  least  six 
months  to  write  a  successful  advertisement  of  a  new 
book.  He  would  try  it  in  various  publications,  and  as 
the  responses  came  in  he  would  correct,  alter,  change  or 
revise  the  advertisement  to  answer  the  questions  most 
frequently  asked  by  inquirers.  In  this  way  he  finally 
produced  an  advertisement  which  fitted  every  apparent 
demand.  This  advertisement  as  finally  arranged  he  re- 
peated over  and  over  again  in  all  publications,  in  some 
cases  running  it  for  two  and  even  three  years.  This 
same  advertisement  would  bring  in  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  inquirers  apd  sell  the  book  to  a  large  proportion 
of  them.  A  single  half-page  magazine  advertisement  is 
said  to  have  brought  in  $45,000  on  the  first  insertion  for 
a  single  book. 

The  general  method  followed  is  to  repeat  an  advertise- 
ment in  a  given  publication  until  it  ceases  to  draw.  It  is 
then  inserted  in  other  publications  and  so  on.  After  it 
has  been  around  a  certain  number  of  times,  a  new  article 
is  submitted  and  the  list  is  gone  through  again.  After 
a  year  or  so  the  same  article  can  again  be  offered.  The 
general  mail-order  houses  have  such  a  i.arge  supply  of 
articles  that  they  can  offer  frequent  changes  of  season- 
able and  timely  goods. 


CHAPTER   IX 
ADVERTISING    AS    A    PROFESSION 

§1 

The  advertising  field  offers  just  as  good  an  oppor- 
tunity to  the  young  man  as  any  other  field  of  work,  but 
no  better.  It  is  no  easier  and  no  surer.  It  is  probably 
just  as  crowded  as  other  professions,  and  on  account 
of  its  being  less  established  it  is  probably  a  little  more 
difficult  to  get  into  because  sometimes  it  is  hard  to  know 
when  you  are  in  it. 

In  the  past  few  years  the  glowing  accounts  of  easy 
success  by  writing  advertising  have  induced  a  great 
many  young  men  to  start  in  this  sort  of  work  without 
qualification,  and  there  is  probably  a  glut  of  indifferent 
advertising  men,  but  there  never  was  and  never  will  be 
a  glut  of  capable  advertising  men  any  more  than  there 
ever  Kvas  or  ever  will  be  a  glut  of  good  lawyers,  doctors, 
merchants  and  manufacturers. 


§2 

\  There  is  a  growing  demand  for  a  man  with  a  plan — 
a  man  who  can  see  in  advance  th(j  form  the  advertising 
should  take ;  who  has  a  definite  idea  as  to  the  sort  of 
copy  and  design  that  should  be  used  and  the  proportion 
of  each ;  the  tone  of  the  copy,  whether  it  should  be  ex- 

329 


330      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

planatory  or  hortative  or  seductive ;  whether  the  design 
should  tell  a  story  or  merely  decorate  a  page ;  whether  it 
should  be  a  black  page  or  two  black  pages  or  a  colored 
insert ;  whether  it  should  be  printed  on  a  street-car  card 
or  on  a  magazine  page ;  how  many  ads  there  should  be ; 
what  the  order  and  sequence  of  them;  whether  the  ads 
should  all  be  given  a  certain  style  so  as  to  be  recogniz- 
able as  all  belonging  to  the  same  brotherhood,  or  all  dif- 
ferent in  form  as  in  idea.  Each  one  of  these  things 
is  a  detail,  but  the  man  who  makes  the  plan  sees  them 
all  in  their  correct  relation  as  a  comprehensive  whole^ 

The  man  who  prepares  the  plan  may  or  may  not  draw 
the  designs,  may  or  may  not  write  the  copy,  may  or  may 
not  select  the  mediums,  may  or  may  not  supervise  the 
typesetting,  engraving,  electrotyping  and  mechanical  re- 
production of  the  advertising,  and  still  be  an  advertis- 
ing man.  Again,  the  advertising  may  or  may  not  be 
placed  in  magazines,  in  newspapers,  in  street  cars,  upon 
billboards  or  in  the  form  of  printed  things.  An  adver- 
tising man  is  a  man  who  can  take  a  given  product,  study 
its  selling  possibilities  and  prepare  a  method  of  selling 
which  will  use  advertising  and  which  will  bring  pur- 
chasers for  the  commodity  either  into  the  retail  stores  or 
direct  by  mail. 
'"■^■•The  best  advertising  man  works  like  an  architect. 
He  can  design  equally  well  an  Italian  villa  in  white 
marble,  with  a  sunken  garden,  carved  seats,  a  sun  dial 
and  Lombardy  poplars  in  rectangular  vistas,  or  a  real 
Colonial  house  of  Harvard  brick  set  in  Flemish  bond 
with  white  door  lintels  and  fanlights  and  white  col- 
umns supporting  the  portico.  Each  is  good  in  harmony 
and  complete  in  itself,  but  they  are  radically  different 
from  each  other. 

The  best  advertising  man  is  one  who  can  prepare  a 


-     ADVERTISING  AS  A  PROFESSION       331 

,^^ood  campaign  for  a  safety  razor  and  an  equally  good 
campaign  for  a  breakfast  cereal,  each  successful  in  its 
own  way,  each  distinctive,  individual  and  striking,  yet 
each  in  no  way  resembling  the  other,  except  that  they 
will  both  be  good  and  sell  goods.  This  is  accomplished 
by  reflect  ing  the  individuality  of  the  house  making  the 
product  instead  of  the  individuality  of  the  advertising 
man.  If  a  hou.se  has  no  particular  individuality, 
the  advertising  man  should  be  clever  enough  to  create 

"SVhen  I  say  "individuality  in  advertising,"  I  mean  a 
character  that  stamps  the  advertising  in  every  form  in 
which  it  appears.  It  is  not  that  each  piece  of  matter 
should  resemble  every  other  piece ;  it  is  not  that  the  fold- 
ers distributed  from  the  store  should  look  like  newspaper 
ads,  street-car  cards  or  window  cards.  Yet,  if  you  see 
any  one  piece  of  advertising  matter  of  Arrow  Collars,  it 
immediately  suggests  other  pieces,  as  one  story  by 
Charles  Dickens  suggests  another. 


§3 

Advertising  must  be  learned  by  doing,  but  for  that 
matter,  so  must  the  management  of  a  store  or  the  con- 
duct of  a  manufacturing  plant.  Advertising  has  so 
much  of-the  practical  and  so  little  of  the  theoretical  in 
it  that  theoretical  knowledge  is  only  incidental,  while 
practical  knowledge  is  worth  a  great  deal.  Over  and 
over  again  have  I  seen  the  man  with  theoretical  knowl- 
edge fail  in  advertising  work. 

]\rany  a  lawyer  has  with  rough-and-ready  eloquence 
won  his  case  who  knew  little  of  the  history  and  theory  of 
law,  but  everyone  will  admit  that  the  lawyer  who  has 


THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

the  rough-and-ready  common-sense  and  is  well  grounded 
in  the  law  also,  is  a  better  lawyer.  In  the  same  way,  the 
advertising  man  who  understands  the  theory  of  adver- 
tising and  has  practical  qualities  besides,  will  be  more 
successful. 

§4 

The  very  first  quality  required  of  an  advertising  man 
is  knowledge  ofJrmiiflTi  natnrp  This,  of  course,  is  a  mere 
generality  in  one  sense.  A  knowledge  of  human  nature 
is  required  for  success  in  any  business.  But  an  advertis- 
ing man  must  have  a  certain  indefinable  instinct  whereby 
he  knows  what  people  must  be  told  about  a  certain  thing. 
The  question  most  frequently  asked  an  advertising  man 
is,  "Will  people  buy  this  thing?"  Of  course  no  man 
can  answer  that  question  positively,  and  yet  a  man  who 
has  had  experience  in  selling  things  through  the  medium 
of  printers'  ink  will  have  some  definite  ideas  about  it, 
and  this  is  where  the  knowledge  of  human  nature  comes 
into  play. 

§  5 

The  next  quality  required  of  an  advertising  man  is  the 

ability  to  recognize  a  good  thing  when  he  sees  it.    When 

he  is  first  introduced  to  a  commodity  there  are  certain 

things  about  it  which  will  strike  him  as  being  the  basis 

of  all  the  advertising — the  particular  attitude  that  the 

talk  is  to  take  toward  the  public. 

j  It  requires  a  certain  training,  combined  with  a  cer- 

I      tain  instinct,  to  see  things  just  this  way,  and  this  in- 

^^^    /      stinct  and  recognition  of  an  advertisable  possibility  is 

t    I      the  second  quality  of  an  advertising  man. 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  PROFESSION       833 

§  6 

Thirdly,  he  requires  a  facility  in  expression,  coupled 
with  a  certain  acquaintance  with  various  forms  of  type 
styles  and  designing  which  will  make  an  ad  which  is 
vigorous  and  individual,  but  which  at  the  same  time 
forms  a  comprehensive  unit.  Then  he  must  decide 
whether  that  particular  style  should  be  maintained. 
Much  of  this  can  be  acquired,  but  the  best  advertising 
man  is  one  in  whom  all  these  different  qualifications  are 
held  in  solution. 

One  man  will  become  an  expert  on  typography.  He 
will  do  things  with  type  that  are  so  perfect  that  every 
type  page  appears  as  a  perfect  unit,  while  at  the  same 
time  giving  up  its  story  to  the  reader  without  any  reluc- 
tance whatever.  Other  men  have  carried  the  possibilities 
of  design  and  illustration  so  far  that  each  advertisement 
is  a  quick-acting  object  lesson.  Another  man  writes  copy 
of  such  clarity  and  such  forcefulness  that  it  needs  no 
design  whatever  and,  therefore,  he  shuns  designs. 
c:,  The  man  who  sees  all  these  possibilities  and  can  use 
them  judiciously  for  different  customers  is  the  man  who 
possesses  best  the  third  quality  of  an  advertising  man.  ^ 


§7 

XThe  fourth  quality  is  versatility-^the  same  sort  of 
versatility  that  a  good  physiclair-exercises  at  the  bed- 
side of  a  patient.  The  doctor  looks  the  case  over,  makes 
his  first  diagnosis,  administers  the  prescription  and 
watches  the  patient.  He  may  be  wrong  or  he  may  be 
right.  He  may  follow  his  original  treatment,  or  he  may 
change  it.    In  either  case,  he  is  a  good  doctor.    The  ad- 


334.      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

vertising  man  who  is  not  willing  to  learn  as  he  goes 
along  will  fail.  An  advertising  man  is  not  inconsistent 
who  finds  reason  to  change  his  plans,  to  modify  his  copy, 
to  alter  his  style  or  display  or  follow-up,  if  he  finds  them 
not  giving  results. 

Advertising  is  an  experimental  science  just  as  is  medi- 
cine, or,  for  that  matter,  just  as  is  law.  The  great  ad- 
vertising successes  have  been  as  much  a  surprise  to  the 
men  who  engineered  them  as  the  great  advertising  fail- 
ures. 

Certain  principles  hold  good  and  are  always  true.  It 
is  also  true  that  different  advertising  campaigns  for  the 
same  article  have  been  successful.  There  is  always  a 
range  of  choice. 

§8 

A  man  who  expects  to  be  a  successful  advertising  man 
should  be  a  good  salesman.  He  should  be  able  to  go 
behind  the  counter  and  sell  goods.  Not  every  adver- 
tising man  has  in  him  the  instincts  of  a  salesman.  If 
he  understands  how  to  talk  so  as  to  sell  goods,  he  will 
then  understand  how  to  write  such  talk.  Of  course,  not 
every  salesman  knows  how  to  write  out  his  selling  talk, 
and  that  is  one  reason  why  every  good  salesman  is  not  a 
good  advertising  man. 

After  learning  the  selling  of  goods,  the  next  step  is 
to  understand  the  management  of  sales.  Manufacturing 
houses  are  more  and  more  combining  their  sales  and 
advertising  departments.  Either  the  sales  manager  and 
the  advertising  manager  are  one,  or  the  advertising 
manager  is  under  the  sales  manager  and  the  two  work 
together. 

The  would-be  advertising  man  should  know  something 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  PROFESSION       336 

about  the  condition  of  business,  the  distribution  of  goods 
through  the  different  channels  to  the  trade,  the  relation 
of  the  manufacturer  to  his  commission  man,  to  his  whole- 
saler, to  his  jobber,  to  his  drummer,  to  his  retailer  and 
to  his  consumer. 

§9 

Someone  has  said  that  genius  is  simply  capacity  for 
hard  work.  There  is  no  sort  of  work  in  which  a  com- 
bination of  genius  and  hard  work  is  so  necessary  as  in 
advertising.  A  good  idea  happens  to  almost  anyone  at 
almost  any  time.  A  trained  advertising  man  recognizes 
a  good  idea  when  it  comes  and  sees  a  way  to  work  it 
out.  The  hard  work  comes  in  working  it  out,  for  even  a 
good  idea  requires  a  lot  of  patience  and  careful  work  be- 
fore it  is  ready  for  use.  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that 
hard  work  on  a  bad  idea  is  better  than  no  work  on  a  \^^^^ — 
good  idea./  I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  painstaking 
carefulness  counts  as  much  in  advertising  as  brilliancy. 
The  mere  writing  of  copy,  while  an  important  qualifica- 
tion, is  not  the  all-essential  one,  and  copy  must  not  be 
judged  from  the  ultra-literary  standpoint,     / 

The  reason  why  so  many  kinds  of  advertising  are  suc- 
cessful in  so  many  different  ways  is  because  there  are 
so  many  kinds  of  people.  It  is  an  open  question  to  me 
whether  a  man  can  write  better  advertising  for  the  class 
of  people  to  which  he  belongs  or  for  the  class  of  people 
to  which  he  does  not  belong.  ]\Iost  advertising  to  reach 
women  is  written  by  men.  This  is  especially  true  of  de- 
partment^tore  advertising.  Other  things  being  equal, 
however,n_think  that  a  man  can  write  the  best  copy  and  \^ 

do  the  bes^^dvertising  for  the  sort  of  things  he  can  use       ^^"1^ 
himself.  iTl  certainly  believe  that  an  advertising  man 


336      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

should  refuse  to  write  advertising  for  things  he  does  not 
believe  in.  This  may  not  necessarily  mean  that  the  arti- 
cle is  worthless,  but  it  does  mean  that  he  cannot  see  its 
desirability.  Absolute  belief  in  the  article  to  be  adver- 
tised on  the  part  of  the  man  preparing  the  advertising 
is  necessary.  Advertising  to  be  successful  must  be  sin- 
cere and  truthful.  There  are  no  exceptions  to  this  rule. 
All  exceptions  are  merely  apparent  exceptions  based  on 
the  old  theory  that  you  can  fool  all  the  people  part  of  the 
time,  or  part  of  the  people  all  the  time.  Businesses 
which  make  only  one  sale  to  a  single  person  can  go  on 
as  long  as  the  population  holds  out.  But  that  is  not 
business;  it  is  a  confidence  game.~y] 


§  10 

jF^A.  man  to  make  a  success  of  advertising  should  have 
la  certain  delight  in  his  work,  a  certain  enthusiasm  in 
doing  it,  and  in  addition  to  this  he  should  have  instinc- 
tive knowledge  of  the  talking  possibilities  of  the  article 
advertised,  versatility,  natural  taste,  a  number  of  in- 
teresting styles  of  writing,  sincerity  and  honesty .^7 

rFor  training,  the  best  combination  would  be  two  or 
three  years  in  a  country  newspaper  office,  soliciting  and 
writing  advertising  as  well  as  writing  editorial  and  news 
copy,  setting  type,  both  job  work  and  ads,  as  well  as 
straight  news  matter ;  then  about  one  year  behind  the 
counter  of  a  good  retail  store,  and  finally  one  year  on 
the  road  as  a  drummer.  Then  if  he  has  a  fair  educa- 
tion, is  a  good  mixer,  democratic  in  his  tastes,  with  a 
lot  of  imagination,  and  will  work  hard,  he  ought  to  be 
a  success  as  an  advertising  manj 

Advertising  is  a  profession  just  as  much  as  law  or 


ADVERTISING  AS  A  PROFESSION       337 

architecture.  It  is  only  beginning  to  be  recognized, 
as  such  by  outsiders,  although  it  has  been  so  recognized 
by  real  advertising  men  for  some  time.YThe  mechanical 
part  of  an  advertising  man's  work  playlTTto  larger  part 
in  his  success  than  the  mechanical  part  of  the  work  of  a 
lawyer,  an  architect  or  a  doctor.  The  two  qualities  he  is 
called  upon  to  exercise  most  are  judgment  and  experi- 
ence. But  in  spite  of  all  this,  it  is  absolutely  necessary 
for  him  to  be  a  good  business  man.  A  man  who  has  to 
advise  other  business  men  should  certainly  be  well 
grounded  in  business  principles  himself  and,  if  he  is 
running  an  advertising  agency,  his  advertising  agency 
should  be  run  on  strict  business  principles?}  Many  ad- 
vertising agencies  have  come  to  grief  becau.se  the  men 
at  the  head  of  them,  while  good  advertising  men,  pos- 
sessing the  necessary  creative  qualities,  the  ability  to 
write  good  copy  and  a  fine  skill  in  presenting  facts, 
lacked  the  everyday  business  judgment  of  the  merchant 
or  banker. 


APPENDIX   A 

Censorship  of  Copy  * 

While  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal,  The  Saturday  Evening 
Post,  The  Country  Gentleman,  and  The  Criterion  of  Fashion 
have  different  editorial  aims  and  do  not  reach  the  same  read- 
ing public,  the  same  general  advertising  policy  applies  to  all 
of  them,  but  there  are  some  exceptions  and  variations  which 
will  be  explained  on  later  pages. 

1.  We  intend  to  exclude  all  advertising  that  in  any  way 
tends  to  deceive,  defraud,  or  injure  our  readers. 

2.  Extravagantly  worded  advertisements  are  not  acceptable, 
nor  those  in  which  extreme  and  exceptional  cases  are  made 
to  appear  average  and  representative. 

3.  "Knocking"  copy  is  not  acceptable — that  is,  copy  which 
points  out  the  inferiority  of  competitors'  goods,  in  contrast 
with  the  superiority  of  the  advertiser's. 

4.  Medical  or  curative  copy  is  not  acceptable. 

5.  Advertisements  for  alcoholic  liquors  are  not  acceptable. 

6.  We  do  not  desire  the  advertising  of  mail-order  houses 
doing  a  general  merchandising  business.  We  do,  however,  ac- 
cept (except  for  The  Criterion  of  Fashion)  the  business  of 
mail-order  advertisers  with  a  limited  and  specialized  scope, 
and  of  advertisers  who  do  a  mail-order  business  incidentally. 

7.  Advertising  in  which  installment-plan  selling  is  incor- 
porated is  not  encouraged  and  must  be  most  carefully  in- 
vestigated before  being  accepted. 

8.  Advertising  of  an  immoral  or  suggestive  nature  is  not 
allowed,  and  representations  of  the  human  form  are  not  ac- 
ceptable in  any  suggestive  negligee  or  attitude.  Advertisers  of 
corsets,  hosiery,  underwear,  etc.,  should  consult  our  represen- 

S38 


APPENDIX    A  339 

ore  going  to  much  expense  in  the  preparation  of 
cop^  cuts  for  use  in  our  publications. 

9.  It  is  desired  to  maintain  in  our  advertising  columns  the 
same  tone  and  atmosphere  that  prevail  in  the  editorial  sec- 
tions. Copy  that  is  cheap  or  vulgar  and  advertisements  that 
are  unpleasant,  either  in  subject  or  treatment,  are  rejected. 

10.  "Blind"  advertising  or  advertising  which  in  purpose 
and  intent  is  obscure  or  misleading  is  not  acceptable. 

11.  Answers  to  advertisements  cannot  be  sent  in  care  of 
our  publications — with  the  exception  of  answers  to  classified 
want  advertisements  in  The  Country  Gentleman. 

12.  Advertisements  in  our  columns  must  not  include  edi- 
torial quotations  from  our  own  publications,  nor  mention  any 
of  our  editorial  writers — except  under  special  conditions  and 
then  only  with  our  consent. 

13.  Advertising  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  boys  or  girls 
as  agents  is  not  acceptable. 

14.  The  word  "free"  must  not  be  used  unless  the  article  is 
actually  free,  or  the  conditions  under  which  the  article  is 
given  are  equally  prominent,  so  that  there  may  be  no  mis- 
understanding by   the  reader. 

15.  Advertisements  exploiting  prize  competitions  must  in 
all  cases,  on  account  of  postal  regulations,  be  submitted  to 
us  for  our  approval  previous  to  their  insertion,  and  such  copy 
must  reach  us  at  least  two  weeks  in  advance  of  closing  date. 

16.  The  United  States  Treasury  Department  prohibits  the 
use  of  illustrations  of  United  States  Stamps,  coins  and  paper 
money. 

17.  Advertisers  must  not  use  illustrations,  copyrights  to 
which  reside  elsewhere,  unless  proper  permission  has  been 
obtained.  Portraits  must  not  be  used  without  proper  au- 
thority for  their  reproduction. 

18.  Speculative  real-estate  advertising  is  not  acceptable. 
Fann  advertising  is  accepted  for  The  Country  Gentleman  after 
careful  investigation. 

19.  Advertisers  must  not  use  our  name  as  a  reference  for 
their  responsibility. 


340      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

20.  Advertisers  must  not  use  the  name  of  The  Ladies^ 
Home  Journal,  The  Saturday  Evening  Post,  The  Country  Gen- 
tleman, or  The  Criterion  of  Fashion  in  their  advertisements 
in  a  way  to  imply  that  we  are  interested  in  or  indorse  their 
propositions. 

21.  Our  sales  agents  are  under  contract  to  prevent  any 
firm  or  person  from  stamping  or  pasting  any  advertising 
notice  upon  pages  of  our  publications,  and  from  inserting  be- 
tween pages  any  foreign  circular  or  advertising  matter.  Ad- 
vertisers will  please  not  suggest  to  their  representatives  any 
plan  calculated  to  induce  sales  agents  to  disregard  these  re- 
quirements. 

For  The  Ladies'  Home  Journal 

1.  Financial  advertising  is  not  acceptable. 

2.  Advertising  of  tobacco  in  any  form  is  not  acceptable. 

3.  Advertising  of  playing-cards  is  not  acceptable. 

4.  Reference  to  alcoholic  liquors  is  not  acceptable. 


For    The    Saturday    Evening    Post    and    The    Country 

Gentleman 

1.  Financial  advertising  is  not  acceptable  if  highly  specu- 
lative. 

2.  We  do  not  accept  advertising  for  stocks  unless  they  are 
in  good  standing  and  listed  on  a  reputable  exchange.  Bond 
advertising  is  acceptable  if  in  favor  of  a  sound  issue,  put 
forth  by  a  bond  house  of  undoubted  standing. 

3.  Financial  advertisers  must  avoid  the  use  of  the  expres- 
sion "absolute  safety"  or  "absolutely  safe"  as  applying  to  any 
investment. 

4.  Tobacco  advertising,  with  the  exception  of  cigarette  ad- 
vertising, is  acceptable  for  The  Saturday  Evening  Post  and 
The  Country  Gentleman.  The  illustration  of  cigarettes  in 
tobacco  advertising  is  not  acceptable.    »     •     * 


APPENDIX   B 
Total  Number  of  Publications 

Statistics  as  to  the  character,  circulation  and  number  of 
publications  are  difficult  to  obtain.  The  best  possible  authority 
(American  Newspaper  Directorj')  shows  that  in  1914  there 
were  issued  in  the  United  States  22,862  different  publications, 
of  which  2,442  were  published  daily,  61  tri-weekly,  567  serai- 
weekly,  16,222  weekly,  62  fortnightly,  296  semi-monthly,  2,864 
monthly,  68  bimonthly  and  228  quarterly.  The  post-office 
recognizes  as  a  periodical  anything  issued  four  times  a  year, 
but  no  publication  issued  less  frequently  than  once  a  month  is 
of  interest  or  value  to  an  advertiser. 

"The  census  reports  for  1910  show  only  22,141  publications 
of  all  kinds,  issued  from  18,871  separate  establishments,  hav- 
ing an  aggregate  circulation  per  issue  of  151,723,725  copies, 
and  an  aggregate  yearly  circulation  of  11,591,353,613  copies, 
enough,  by  the  way,  to  give  evei-y  man,  woman  and  child  in 
the  country  126  copies  of  something  every  year.  They  show 
further  that  these  publications  received  in  1910  an  aggregate 
revenue  of  $337,596,288,  of  which  $135,063,043  or  40  per  cent, 
was  paid  for  subscriptions,  and  $202,533,043  or  60  per  cent, 
for  advertising  space.  These  statistics  prove  conclusively  that 
our  present  periodical  press  is  possible  only  through  the  ad- 
vertising patronage,  which  bears  the  chief  burden  of  the  ex- 
pense. 

The  amount  of  money  represented  by  the  total  revenue  from 
the  sale  of  space  in  a  year  by  all  periodicals,  $202,533,043, 
seems  small  in  comparison  with  the  total  probable  expenditure 
for  advertising  in  this  countiy  of  $1,000,000,000.  It  should 
be  remembered,  however,  that  this  represents  only  the  net  cost 
of  space;  that  from  10  to  15  per  cent,  is  to  be  added  to  some 

341 


S4>2      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

of  this  in  the  way  of  commissions;  that  there  was  a  further 
cost  in  the  preparation  of  designs  and  copy,  in  the  making  of 
plates  and  expressage  upon  them,  and  in  various  other  legiti- 
mate expenses  in  connection  with  advertising;  and  also  that  the 
various  other  mediums  employed,  such  as  billboards,  street-cars 
and  circulars,  while  relatively  less  important  than  periodicals, 
are  comparatively  more  expensive.  Printed  matter  also  ac- 
counts for  a  very  large  percentage  of  advertising  expenditure. 
According  to  the  same  census  there  are  4,154  inhabitants  in 
the  country  to  each  publication.  This,  taken  in  connection 
with  the  fact  given  above  that  there  are  126  copies  of  some 
publication  issued  during  the  year  for  every  inhabitant  of  the 
country,  shows  how  possible  it  is  to  reach  every  buying  person 
with  properly  directed  advertising.  A  division  of  all  publica- 
tions into  classes,  according  to  the  periods  of  issue  is  given  in 
the  census  report  as  follows: 

Daily  except  Sunday 2,600 

Sunday 520 

Tri-weekly  73 

Semi- weekly    635 

Weekly 15,097 

Monthly 2,491 

Quarterly 361 

Miscellaneous    364 

22,141 

If  these  periodicals  are  classified  according  to  the  character 
of  their  reading  matter,  the  statistics  stand  as  follows : 

News,  politics  and  family  reading 17,698 

Religious   1,251 

Agricultural,    horticultural,    dairy,    stock    rais- 
ing, etc 316 

Commerce,  finance,  insurance,  railroads,  etc 264 

Trade  journals  generally 685 

General   literature  inc.   monthly  and  quarterly 

magazines   340 


APPENDIX  B  343 

Medicine  and  surgery 197 

Law    56 

Science  and  nieclianics 139 

Fraternal  organizations  419 

Education  and  history 202 

Society,  art,  music,  fasliions,  etc 164 

College  and  school  periodicals." 271 

Miscellaneous    139 

Of  the  daily  newspapers  there  are  369  copies  per  1,000  lit- 
erate pei*sons  10  years  and  over;  of  the  weeklies  there  are  625 
copies  per  1,000;  and  of  the  monthlies  958  copies  per  1,000.  It 
may  be  added  that  there  are  1,397  periodicals  published  in 
various  languages,  of  which  39  are  in  French,  692  in  German, 
104  in  Italian,  161  in  Scandinavian,  169  in  Letto-Slavic,  and 
232  in  several  other  languages.  Some  of  thes3,  and  notably  the 
Genuan  and  French  publications,  are  important  advertising 
mediums. 


APPENDIX  C 

Advertising  Organizations 

The  rapid  growth  of  advertising,  together  with  the  fact  that 
so  many  individual  fields  of  work  are  covered  by  this  broad 
term,  has  naturally  produced  a  large  number  of  organiza- 
tions devoted  to  advertising  in  general  or  some  particular  part 
of  it.  • 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  more  important  ones : 

Quoin  Club. — This  is  an  organization  of  the  advertising 
managers  of  the  leading  magazines,  formed  for  the  discussion 
of  subjects  of  common  interest  in  the  conduct  of  the  adver- 
tising departments.  Some  twenty  publishing  houses  are  rep- 
resented, some  of  them  producing  several  magazines,  making 
a  total  list  of  about  thirty  publications. 

Sphinx  Club. — This  is  one  of  the  oldest  advertising  clubs. 
It  is  a  loose  organization  made  up  of  men  of  all  kinds  of  ad- 
vertising interests.  Its  work  consists  of  a  monthly  dinner  at 
which  addresses  are  delivered  upon  advertising  and  allied 
subjects.  It  is  located  in  New  York  City,  although  its  mem- 
bership extends  over  the  entire  United  States. 

Six  Point  League. — This  is  the  name  of  the  organization 
of  the  special  representatives  of  out-of-town  newspapers  with 
offices  in  New  York  City.  Not  all,  but  nearly  all  important 
special  agencies  in  the  city  are  represented  in  membership, 
and  its  purpose  is  mutual  discussion  upon  subjects  affecting 
the  interests  of  this  phase  of  advertising  as  a  whole. 

Periodical  Publishers  Association. — This  is  an  associa- 
tion of  the  publishers  of  magazines,  coinciding  more  or  less 
with  the  membership  of  the  Quoin  Club.  Advertising  is  only 
one  of  the  phases  of  its  interests,  however,  as  all  details  of 


APPENDIX    C  345 

ma^razino  publication,  such  as  circulation,  are  considered  at 
its  meetings. 

Americak  Newspaper  Publishers  Association. — This 
body  corresponds  in  the  newspaper  field  to  the  Periodical 
Publishers  Association  in  the  magazine  world.  It  is  made  up 
of  the  publishers  of  leading  metropolitan  newspapers  of  the 
United  States. 

Technical  Publicity  Club. — This  is  a  club  made  up  of 
the  advertising  managers  of  businesses  which  as  a  rule  do  no 
general  advertising,  but  confine  their  advertising  to  trade 
papers  and  direct  printed  matter. 

Advertising  Men's  League. — This  is  an  organization  of  ad- 
vertising men,  devoted  to  the  study  of  advertising  problems  in 
the  large  sense.  It  is  not  made  up  of  the  workers  in  any  one 
line,  but  its  members  represent  nearly  every  phase  of  adver- 
tising. Its  meetings  are  of  an  instructive  and  educational  na- 
ture, and  they  are  supplemented  by  various  courses  in  adver- 
tising— writing,  designing  and  similar  subjects — open  to  mem- 
bers and  non-members.  It  is  one  of  the  two  most  important 
clubs  devoted  to  the  professional  side  of  advertising  work. 

Association  of  Advertising  Agents. — This  organization  is 
made  up,  as  its  name  implies,  of  members  representing  the 
different  advertising  agencies.  The  parent  club  is  located  in 
New  York  City,  and  is  the  strongest  organization  of  this  kind, 
although  similar  associations  are  now  found  in  Philadelphia 
and  Chicago.  This  Club  is  in  some  respects  the  most  impor- 
tant club  devoted  to  advertising,  because  so  large  a  percent- 
age of  the  advertising  that  is  done  is  handled  by  advertising 
agents. 

Representatives  Club. — This  is  an  organization  of  the  ad- 
vertising solicitors  upon  the  staffs  of  the  leading  magazines. 
The  Quoin  Club  is  made  up  of  the  advertising  managers;  the 
Representatives  Club  of  their  various  assistants.  This  is  a 
large  organization,  and  its  meetings  are  devoted  mainly  to 
addresses  from  advertising  men  in  other  lines  of  work  upon 
matters  of  common  interest  to  the  solicitor  and  the  producer 
of  advertising. 


346      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Association  of  Advertising  Managers. — This  is  a  nation- 
al organization  made  up  of  men  who  are  handling  the  adver- 
tising for  various  manufacturers.  It  is  national  in  scope  and 
distribution. 

Audit  Bureau  of  Circulations. — The  membership  of  this 
organization  consists  equally  of  publishers,  advertising  agents 
and  advertisers,  all  interested  in  circulation  ratings  and  other 
exact  statistics  in  regard  to  advertising.  Its  membership  fees 
are  sufficient  to  cover  a  paid  secretary  and  bureau  for  carrying 
on  the  work.  While  a  new  organization,  it  is  fast  displacing 
all  other  methods  of  securing  this  data,  and  arriving  at  a  com- 
mon agreement  upon  facts  relating  to  the  circulation  of  ad- 
vertising mediums. 

Associated  Advertising  Clubs  of  the  World. — This  or- 
ganization is  numerically  the  largest  one  devoted  to  advertis- 
ing. Its  membership  is  made  up  of  the  various  advertising 
clubs  now  found  all  over  the  United  States  and  a  few  in  Eng- 
land. Most  of  the  organizations  mentioned  above  are  mem- 
bers, but  the  membership  is  more  definitely  made  up  of  local 
advertising  clubs,  one  of  which  is  found  in  nearly  every  city 
large  enough  to  have  a  body  of  men  engaged  in  advertising 
work.  Some  of  the  large  cities  have  local  advertising  organi- 
zations of  equal  rank  with  those  in  New  York  City,  such  as  the 
Agate  Club  of  Chicago,  the  Pilgrim  Publicity  Association  in 
Boston  and  the  Adcraft  Club  in  Detroit.  Most  of  the  clubs 
which  are  members  of  this  association,  however,  bear  simply 
the  name  of  the  town,  such  as  the  Des  Moines  Advertising 
Club.  Originally  many  of  the  clubs  joining  this  association 
were  merely  town-boosting  clubs^that  is,  associations  of  busi- 
ness men  to  advertise  their  towns.  These,  however,  are  being 
eliminated  or  made  over,  the  idea  being  that  each  local  club 
should  be  made  up,  as  far  as  possible,  of  men  locally  engaged 
in  advertising  work  or  in  advertising  a  particular  business.  This 
association  holds  a  large  convention  each  year,  the  attendance 
of  which  at  recent  meetings  has  amounted  to  some  three  thou- 
sand representatives  from  the  different  clubs.  The  rest  of  the 
year  its  work  is  done  through  the  officers  of  the  local  clubs. 


APPENDIX   D 

A  Business  Library 

Every  advertising  man  should  gather  together  books  devoted 
to  his  field  of  work,  together  with  books  on  other  subjects 
tliat  help  him  in  the  pursuit  of  his  work.  Such  a  business 
library  is  outlined  here. 

Advertising 
About  Advertising  and  Printing  .  N.  C.  Fowler,  Jr. 

Advertising    Powers,  John  0. 

Advertising    (English) Howard  Bridgewater 

Advertising  and  Selling H.  L.  Hollingworth 

Advertising  as  a  Business  Force.  P.  T.  Cherington 

Advertising    Phrases William  Henry  Baker 

Akt  and  Literature  of  Business  . .  Charles  Austin  Bates 
Art  and  Science  of  Advertising, 

The George  French 

Art  op  Advertising,  The William  Stead 

Astir   John  Adams  Thayer 

Financial    Advertising Lewis 

Forty     Years     an     Advertising 

Agent George  P.  Rowell 

Fowler's    Publicity    (  Encyclope- 
dia)     N.  C.  Fowler 

GrOOD  Advertising Charles  Austin  Bates 

History  of  Advertising Henry  Sampson 

How  TO  Make  Advertising  Pay.  . .  Seymour  Eaton 

Imagination  in  Business L.  F.  Deland 

Law  op  Advertising  and  Sales.  . .  Clowry  Chapman 
Mahin's  Advertising  Data  Book.  .  John  Lee  Mahin 
Market  and  Psychology,  The.  . . .  Hugo  Miinsterberg 

347 


348      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Modern  Advertising Calkins  &  Holden 

Newspaper  Advertising G.  H.  E.  Hawkins 

Photography  in  Advertising J.  H.  Adams 

Poster  Advertising G.  H.  E.  Hawkins 

Posters C.  Matlock  Price 

Posters  in  Miniature, Percival  Pollard 

Practical  Advertiser H.  Powell 

Practical  Publicity Truman  A.  De  Weese 

Principles  of  Advertising D.  Starch 

Principles    op    Advertising    Ar- 
rangement   Alvah  T.  Parsons 

Psychology  of  Advertising,  The.  Walter  Dill  Scott 

Science   of   Advertising Edwin  Balmer 

•     Science  of  Advertising,  The N.  W.  Ayer  &  Son 

Secrets  of  the  Mail-Order  Trade  .  Samuel  Sawyer 

Selling  Forces Curtis  Publishing  Co. 

Sermons  on  Advertising Seymour  Eaton 

Specialty  Advertising Henry  S.  Bunting 

Successful    Advertising J.  A.  MacDonald 

'Theory  op  Advertising,  The Walter  Dill  Scott 

Typography  of  Advertisements  . .  F.  J.  Trezise 

Designing 

Alphabets — Manual  of  Lettering 

FOR  THE  Use  of  Students Edward  F.  Strange 

Alphabets — Old  and  New Lewis  F.  Day 

Decorative  Illustration  of  Books, 

The    Walter  Crane 

Grammar  of  Ornament Owen  Jones 

Handbook  of  Ornament F.  S.  Meyer 

Letters  and  Lettering Frank  Chouteau  Brown 

Manual  of  Color J.  I.  Sanford 

Ornament  and  Its  Application  . .  L.  F.  Day 

Selling 

Ethics  and  Principles  of  Sales- 
manship   E.  a.  Russell 

How  TO  Write  Letters  that  Win  .  System  * 

Human  Nature  in  Selling  Goods  .  J.  H.  Collins 
Men  Who  Sell  Things Walter  D.  Moody 


APPENDIX    D  849 

One  Hundred  Ways  and  Schemes 

TO  Attract  Trade I.    P.    Fox    &    B.    A. 

Forbes 

Principles  of  Salesmanship,  The.  Win.  A.  Corbion 

Retail  Selunq  and  Store   Man- 
agement   Paul  H.  Neystrom 

Sales    Plans Thomas  A.  Bird 

Salesmanship    A.  F.  Sheldon 

Scientific   Salesmanship Pierce 

Success  in  Letter  Writing Sherwiii  Cody 

Law 

American  Business  Law Chamberlain 

American  Business  Law J.  J.  Sullivan 

Conditional  Sales F.  B.  Hering 

Essentials  of  Business  Law Francis  M.  Burdick 

Laws  of  Business Parsons 

Reference  Books 

Crabb's  English  Synonymes George  Crabb 

Dictionary  OF  English  Synonymes  Richard  Soule 
English     Synonyms,     Antonyms 

AND  Prepositions James  C.  Femald 

Roget's  Thesaurus P.  M.  Roget 

Business  Administration 

Building    Business Fowler 

Business  Management F.  W.  Taylor 

Business    Organization Dieksee   (English) 

Business  Organization Sparling 

Corporate    Organization Thomas  Conyngton 

Corporate  Management Thomas  Conyngton 

Cost  Keeping  for  Manufacturing 

Plants S.  H.  Bunnell 

Efficiency'   Emerson 

Factory  Organization  and  Admin- 
istration   Diemer 

Principles  op  Industrial  Manage- 
ment   J.  K.  Duncan 

Profit  Making  Management Carpenter 


350      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Railroad  Administration Ray  Morris 

Shop  Management  (Principles  of 

Scientific  Management)   F.  W.  Taylor 

Starting  in  Life Fowler 

Theory  of  Business  Enterprise.  .  Veblen 

Financial 

Banking   Problems Norawetz 

Corporate  Finance  and  Account- 
ing     H.  C.  Bentley 

Corporation  Finance Greene 

Corporation  Finance    Edward  S.  Mead 

Financing  an  Enterprise Francis  Cooper 

Funds  and  Their  Use Cleveland 

Handbook     on     Currency     and 

Wealth    Waldron 

Modern  Bank Fiske 

Money  and  Banking J.  T.  Holdsworth 

Money  and  Investments Rollins 

Money,  Exchange  and  Banking.  .  Easton 

Trust  Finance Meade 

Work  of  Wall  Street Serene  S.  Pratt 

Accounting 

Accounting  Every  Business  Man 

Should  Know Garrison 

Accounting  Theory  and  Practice.  Greenlinger 

Accounts    W.  M.  Cole 

Depreciation    Matheson 

Dicksee's     Auditing      (American 

Edition)    Montgomery 

Credit 

Credit  and  Its  Uses Prendergast 

Rural  Credits  Myron  T.  Herrick 

Typography,  Engraving,  Paper,  etc. 
American  Manual  of  Typography, 

-     The    Oswald  Pub.  Co. 

Art  and  Practice  of  Typography.  E.  G.  Gress 


APPENDIX    D  861 

Concerning  Type A.  S.  Carnell 

Design  and  Color  in  Printing.  . . .  F.  J.  Trezise 

Dictionary  of  Engraving W.  H.  Baker 

Line  Photo  Engraving \Vm.  Gamble 

Miller's    Guide    (Paper    Buyers' 

Handbook)   J.  T.  Miller 

Penrose  Pictorial  Annual,  The.  .  A.  W.  Penrose 

Practical  Engraver Q.  A.  Banner 

Practice  op  Typography,  The Theodore    L.    DeVinne 

(3  vol.) 

Principles  op  Design,  The E.  A.  Batchelder 

Printing   C.  T.  Jaeobi  ( English) 

Printing  and  Writing  Material.  .  A.  M.  Smith 
Printing  in  Relation  to  Graphic 

Art  George  French 

English  Composition,  etc. 
A  Desk  Book  of  Errors  in  Eng- 
lish     F.  H.  Vizetelly 

Art  of  Writing  and  Speaking  the 

English  Language Sherwin  Cody 

Principles  op  Rhetoric A.  S.  Hill 

Rhetoric    Austin  Phelps  &  H.  A- 

Frink 
Writing  for  the  Press Robert  Luce 

General 

American  Business  and  Account- 
ing Cyclopedia Beach  (4  vol.) 

American  Business  Methods 

American   Communities Hinds 

American  Railway  Transporta- 
tion   Johnson 

Business  as  It  Is  Done  in  Great 
Commercial  Centres 

Business  Ethics Brooks 

Business  Men's  Library System 

Business  Success Cannon  &  others 

Business  Success Cottingham 

Education  and  Industrial  Evolu- 
tion     Carlton 


352      THE  BUSINESS  OF  ADVERTISING 

Elements  of  Transportation Johnson 

Empire  of  Business Carnegie 

Encyclopedia  of  Commerce 

How  TO  Do  Business Seymour  Eaton 

International   Commercial   Poli- 
cies   risk 

Introduction   to   Study   of   Com- 
merce   r.  R.  Clow 

Letters  of  a  S  elf-Made  Merchant 

TO  His  Son Lorimer 

Making  of  a  Merchant Higginbotham  &  others 

Modern  Corporation^  The Thomas  Conyngton 

Modern  Industrialism McVey 

One  Hundred  Lessons  in  Business  Seymour  Eaton 

Partnership  Relations Thomas  Conyngton 

Patents    Prindle 

Property  Insurance S.  S.  Huebner 

Psychology:      General    and    Ap- 
plied   Hugo  Miinsterberg 

Pushing  to  the  Front Marden 

Pushing  Your  Business T.  D.  McGregor 

Random    Reminiscences Rockefeller 

Searchlic  :iTS    Colman 

Social    Engineering Tolman 

Starting  in  Life Fowler 

Talks  by  an  Old  Storekeeper  ....  Farrington 
What  We  Can  Learn  from  Ger- 
man Business  Methods Magee   (5  vol.) 

Work,  Wages  and  Profit Gantt 

Periodicals 

Printers'  Ink,  New  York 
System,    Chicago 

Advertising  and  Selling,  New  York 
Standard  Advertising,  Chicago 

Bound  volumes  of  these  form  a  desirable  addition  to  an 
advertising  library. 


INDEX 


Advertised    goods,    easier   to 

sell,  157 
Advertiser,  The,  93 
Advertisers,  foreign,  25 
relations  of,  with  street-car 
advertising  companies, 
45 
Advertising,  "Advertising  as 
a   Business  Force,"  ix 
definition  of,  1 
an  educating  force,  156 
estimating  success  of,  95 
history  of,  2 

how  it  operates,  286-287 
ideal     conditions     attained 

by,  97 
individuality  in,  331 
indorsed  by  magazines,  285 
new  force  in,  98 
power  of,  9 

as  a  profession,  329-337 
sincerity    and    honesty    in, 

336 
three  units  of,  16 
Advertising,  a  chain  of  stores 
operated  by  one  manu- 
facturer, 269 
a  collar,  208 
a  corporation,  296 


Advertising,  a  dried  milk,  101 

gas,  296 

shoes,  152 

a  substitute  for  lard,  99 

a  talking  machine,  209 

United  Cigar  Stores,  269 
Advertising     agency,     book- 
keeping of,  75 

departments  of,  53,  68 

functions  of,  58 

ideal,  52 

income  of,  75 

personnel  of,  15 

team  work  in,  57 
Advertising    agents,    associa- 
tion of  New  York,  76 

professional  men,  98 

relations  of,  with  advertis- 
ers and  publishers,  76 

relations  of,  with  street-car 
advertising  companies, 
45 
Advertising  department, 
chart  of  Sherwin-Wil- 
liams', 179,  181 

of  a  newspaper,  29,  30 

organization    of    Sherwin- 
Williams',   178,   180 
Advertising     editorials.     The 
Outlooks,  300 

John  Wanamaker's,  107 


353 


354 


INDEX 


Advertising  experiences,  help- 
fulness of,  102 

Advertising  expert,  8    . 

Advertising  failure,  of  a  self- 
raising  flour,  184 

Advertising  field,  opportuni- 
ties of,  329 

Advertising  man,  ability  of, 
66 
requirements  of,  330,  336 

Advertising  manager,  respon- 
sibility of,  178 

Advertising  men,  free  lance, 
88 

Advertising  possibilities,  pre- 
liminary consideration 
of,  99 

Advertising   renaissance,   183 

Advertising  and  sales  chart, 
111 

Advertising  and  sales  com- 
bined, 185,  334 

Advertising  specialists,  88 

Advertising    work,    intuition 
in,  207 
tools  of,  267 
training  for,  336 

Agate  line,  24 

Agricultural  papers,  37,  38 

Anecdote  style,  254,  256 

Art  department,  of  advertis- 
ing agency,  56,  68 
art  manager  of,  68 

Art  of  writing,  applied  to  ad- 
vertising, 250,  253,  257 

Artists  producing  commercial 
art,  265 


Association  of  New  York  Ad- 
vertising Agents,  76 

Atmosphere  in  advertising, 
67 

Audit  Bureau  of  Circula- 
tions, 27 

Authors  good  advertisement 
writers,  263 


B 


Back  covers,  opportunity  for 

color  on,  68 
Belief   in    article   advertised, 

336 
Billboard  advertising,  41-46 
Billing  of  space,  85,  86 
Bookbinding,  91 
Booklet  cover,  262 
Broadsides,  73 
Business-getting     department 

of  advertising  agency, 

53 
Buyers  of  advertising,  93 


Cash  discount,  85,  86 
Censorship  of  copy,  338 
Charts,  advertising  and  sales, 
63,  111 
of    Sherwin-Williams'    ad- 
vertising    department, 
179,  181 
Checking,  of  competitors'  ad- 
vertising, 86 


INDEX 


355 


Checkiii)?,  of  street-car  adver- 
tising, 46 
Checking  department  of  ad- 
vertising agency,  57 
Children's  magazines,  35 
Circulation,     duplication    of, 
35,  36 
Eastman    investigation    of, 

37 
methods  used  to  obtain,  36 
newspaper,  26 
schemes,  28 
statistics,  341 
Circulations,    Audit    Bureau 

of,  27 
Class  papers,  31 

authorities     in     respective 

lines,  32,  40 
classification  of,  33 
reflecting  trade  conditions, 
33 
Classified  advertising,  29 
Clever  advertising,  248 
Code,  Curtis  advertising,  4 
College    publications,    maga- 
zines, 48 
newspapers,  48 
Color    opportunity    on    back 

covers,  68 
Commerce     methods     simpli- 
fied, 10 
Commercial  art  by  artists  of 

first  rank,  265 
Commission  paid  by  publish- 
ers, 75,  76 
Competitors'  advertising, 
checking  of,  86 


Confidence  in  advertising,  94, 
97,  98 

Copy,  censorship  of,  338 
definition  of,  56 

Copy    department    of   adver- 
tising agency,  56,  66 

Cost    of    manufacturing    re- 
duced, 11 

Creative  work  of  advertising, 
75,  202,  203 


Department  store  advertising, 
29,  107 
Altman  store,  271 
errors  in  price  in,  280 
heaviest,   preceding  princi- 
pal shopping  days,  278 
idealization  of,  271,  277 
of    London    department 
store,  advertised  along 
American     lines,     289, 
291 
of  Manly  M.  Gillam,  270 
mediums  employed  in,  281 
methods  of  large  stores  in, 

279 
pioneer  in,  270 
placed  direct,  29 
quick  results  of,  282 
special  rate  for,  29 
Wanamaker  style  of,  270, 
271 
"Does  it  pay?",  271,  277 
"Wanamaker  newspaper  ad, 
272 


366 


INDEX 


Department  store  advertising, 
Wanamaker  war  ad, 
273 

Department  stores,  antagonis- 
tic   to    manufacturer, 
283 
mail-order  catalogs  of,  282 

Design,  "Principles  of  Adver- 
tising Arrangement,"  89 

Development  of  advertising, 
183 

Disadvantages  overcome,  209 

Distribution  of  goods,  61 
complicated    by   freight 

rates,  154,  158 
waste  in  advertising  caused 
by  poor,  62 

Dummy,  definition  of,  64 


E 


Eastman  investigation,   37 

Educational  force  of  adver- 
tising, 156 

"Efficiency  in  Business,  In- 
creasing Human,"  89 

Electrotyping,  91 

Engraving,  91 

Expenditure,  advertising,  13, 
341 

Expression,  ease  of,  333 

F 

Folder   showing    atmosphere, 

208 
Foreign  advertisers,  25 


Forwarding     department     of 

advertising  agency,  58 
Fraudulent  advertising,  7 

curtailment  of,  7 
Free  lance   advertising  men, 

88 
Freight     rates     complicating 

distribution    of   goods, 

154,  158 


Q 


Goodwill,  a  valuable  asset, 
96,  107 

Graphic  arts,  study  of,  re- 
quired, 252 

H 

Helps,  advertising,  for  retail- 
ers, 90 
furnished  by  manufacturer, 

177,  299 
moving    picture    slides    as, 

51 
portfolio  of,  299,  301,  318 
House      organs,     department 

store,  281 
Human  nature,  knowledge  of, 
332 


Individuality    in    advertising, 

331 
Influencing    the   retailer,   96, 

97 


INDEX 


367 


Intuition  in  advertising  work, 
207 

Investigating  Bureau  of  Cur- 
tis Publishing  Com- 
pany, 156 

Investigating  department  of 
advertising  agency,  55, 
61 

Investigation  of  circulation  by 
Eastman,  37 

Investigations,  to  reflect  re- 
tailer and  consumer  at- 
titude, 156,  157 

Investigator,  work  of,  156, 
157 


Jobbers    as    national    adver- 
tisers, 103,  105 

K 

Keynote  idea  in  advertising, 

60,  61 
Pierce-Arrow,  205,  207 
presenting  the,  245,  247 
process   of   finding,    for   a 

prepared  roofing,  241, 

242 
in  story  of  adulteration  of 

silk,  187 


"Law     of    Advertising     and 
Sales,  The,"  88 


Laying    out    advertisements, 

66,  67 
Library,  business,  347 
Literature  in  advertising,  264 

M 

Magazines,    classification    of, 
31 
agricultural,  37,  38 
children's,  35 
class  or  trade,  31 
college,  48 
mail-order,  40 
religious,  38,  39 
standard,   33 
weekly,  34 
women's,  34 
indorsing     advertising     in, 

285 
grouping  of,  35 
national  distribution  of,  20, 

21 
printing  possibilities  in,  20 
reading  of,  for  leisure,  20 
Mail-order  advertising,  40,  43 
antagonism  toward,  42 
for  a  book,  328 
of  department  stores,  282 
following   up    inquiries   in, 

327 
kinds  of,  322 
new  kind  of,  42,  43 
resembling    general    adver- 
tising, 323 
resembling   retail    advertis- 
ing, 323 


358 


INDEX 


Mail-order  advertising,  selling 
at    retail    over    entire 
country,  321 
writing  of,  326 
Mail-order    business,    helped 
by  rural  free  delivery, 
324 
possibilities   of,    shown   by 
statistics,  325 
Mail-order  catalogs,  322, 
327 
Department  store,  282 
Mail-order  houses,  customers 
of,  324 
growth  of,  322,  323 
Mail-order  publications,  40 

character  of,  325 
Manager  of  art  department, 

68 
Manufacturer's     relation     to 

advertising,  300 
Manufacturers  helping  retail- 
ers advertise,  by  means 
of      moving      picture 
slides,  51 
by    means    of    ready-made 
advertising,     90,.    177, 
299 
Manufacturing  costs  reduced, 

11 
Manufacturing    methods,    re- 
vising of,  by  studying 
sales  problems,  186 
of  a  shirt  and  collar  manu- 
facturer, 188 
of    a    stationery    business, 
186 


Market,  studying  and  deter- 
mining the,  155 
"Market      and      Psychology, 

The,"  89 
Marketing  products,  old  and 
new,  199 
outline   of  necessary  steps 
in,  151,  199,  200 
Matrix,  definition  of,  71,  73 
Mechanical   trades   of  adver- 
tising, 90 
Mediums,  19,  50,  281 
four  classes  of,  19 
magazines,  31,  34 
newspapers,  20,  30 
billboards,  41,  46 
street  cars,  41,  44 
information  about,  16 
printed  matter  supplemen- 
tary to  other  foniis  as, 
50 
Methods  of  commerce  simpli- 
fied by  advertising,  10 
Moving  picture  slides,  50,  51 


N 

Name,  value  of,  205 

Names,  coined  words  for,  159 

fictitious  fii-m,  290,  292 
Naming  the  article,  159 
National    advertisers,    adver- 
tising helps  offered  re- 
tailer by,  51,  109,  177, 
299 
jobbers  as,  103,  105 


INDEX 


359 


National   advertising,    prepa- 
ration for,  153 
"Newspaper  Advertising,"  30 
Newspaper    advertising,     re- 
strictions in,  30 
Newspaper     advertising     de- 
partment, 29,  30 
helping  the  retail  advertis- 
er, 294 
Newspaper  Directory,  Amer- 
ican, 26,  27 
Newspapers,  20 

adopting   same   basis   with 
agents    as    magazines, 
79 
circulation  of,  26,  28 
classification  of,  21 
college,  48 

as  natural  marketplaces,  20 
rate  cards  of,  25 
ready-prints    supplied    to, 

23 
standardization  of  rates  of, 

25 
Sunday  supplements  of,  21 
weekly,  22 
Novelties,  advertising,  49 


0 


Obstacles,  elimination  of,  157 

in  fixed  price,  158 

in  retailers'  hostility  to- 
ward trade-marked 
and  advertised  goods, 
152,  157 


Organizations,  advertising, 
344 

Organization  of  Sherwin- 
Williams'  advertising 
department,    178,    180 

Outlook's  advertising  editor- 
ial, 300 


Packages,    advertising    space 
on,  172 
advertising   value   of,   167, 

168,  170 
Aligliieri  Soup  can,  172 
attractiveness    of    German, 

171,  173 
Big  Ben  box,  167 
group  of  German,  174 
imitating  competitors',  168, 

172 
story  of  Dobbs'  Hat  box, 

171 
story  of  soap  package,  170 
Williams'  Holder  Top  box, 
169 
Paper,  91 

Periodicals,  number  of,  3,  341 
Placing  agency,  88 
Plan,  advertising,  60,  175 
as    it    affects    the    jobber, 
176 
the  retailer,  176 
the  store  salesman,  177 
the    traveling    salesman, 
175 


360 


INDEX 


Plan,   advertising,  built 

around    keynote    idea, 

61,   66,  216 

example  of  preliminary,  219 

example  of  advertising  and 

sales  chart,  63 
form  of,  62,  64 
for  a  door  check,  216 
for  hats,  301,  318 
for  stationery,  113,  150 
Plan  department  of  advertis- 
ing agency,  55,  56,  60 
Plates,  distributing  to  news- 
papers of,  73 
furnished  magazines,  74 
Portfolio  of  retailers'  adver- 
tising helps,  299,  301, 
318 
Possibilities,  advertising,  pre- 
liminary discussion  of, 
99 
recognition  of,  332 
Posters,  47 

French  and  German,  68 
rates  for,  47 
size  of,  47 
Powers,  John  0.,  259 
Practical     and      theoretical 
knowledge  required  in 
advertising,  331 
Preparation  of  advertisement, 
from  inception  to  ap- 
pearance in  magazine, 
209,  210 
Preparation    of    advertising, 
art  of  writing  in,  250, 
253,  264, 


Preparation    of    advertising, 
employing      anecdotes 
in,  254 
graphic  arts,  252 
Preparing    a    furniture    ad, 
things    considered    in, 
288,  289 
Preparing    a    stationery    ad, 
209,  214 
the  copy,  212 
the  illustration,  213 
the  complete  ad,  215 
"Principles     of     Advertising 
Arrangement,      T  h  e," 
89 
Printed  matter,  50 

of  clothing  stores,  292 
of  department  stores,  281 
individuality  in,  292 
of  Rogers,  Peet  Co.,  292 
supplemental  to  other  ad- 
vertising, 50 
Printing,  90 

Printing     ofi&ces     maintained 
by    advertising    agen- 
cies, 71 
Profession,   advertising  as  a, 

98,  329,  337 
Programs,  theater,  48 
Progress  of  advertising,  198 
Psychology     of     advertising, 

202 
"Psychology    of   Advertising, 

The,"  89 
Publishers',      adopting     uni- 
form advertising  poli- 
cy,  79 


INDEX 


361 


Publishers'  agreement  with 
agents  (Curtis  Pub- 
lishing Co.),  79,  80 

attitude  toward  advertiser, 
81,  285 

attitude  toward  agent,  81 

commission  to  advertising 
agents,  75,  76 

responsibility  to  reader, 
285 

B 

Rate  cards,  newspaper,  25 
Rate  department  of  advertis- 
ing agency,  56,  58 
Rate  man,  a  diplomat,  58 
Rates,  for  painted  signs,  47 
for  postei-s,  47 
special,  for  department 

store  advertising,  29 
street-car  advertising,  45 
standardization  of,  25 
Ready  prints,  23 
Ready-made   advertising,    51, 
90,  109,  177,  292,  301, 
318 
Religious  papers,  38,  39 
Repetition  of  idea,  13 
Reproductions    of    advertise- 
ments, character  of  ar- 
ticle advertised,  65  • 
eflfectiveness     of     typogra- 
phy shown  by,  70,  261 
electric  current  and  appli- 
ances, 256 
hand-lettering,  87 


Reproductions  of  advertise- 
ments, hand-lettering 
and  designed  border,206 

illustration  combined  with 
appropriate  designing, 
211 

London  department  store, 
291 

Macbeth,  259 

mail-order,  43 

Murphy  varnish,  259 

publishing  house  advertis- 
ing, 251 

silhouettes,  72 

stationery,  249 

story  idea,  255 

tea,  264 

telephone,  297 

tobacco,  246 
Retail   advertisers,   106,   107, 
270 

advertising  helps  furnished 
by  manufacturer  to, 
51,  90,  109,  177,  293, 
299 

clothing  stores  as,  290,  292 

helped  by  newspaper  ad- 
vertising department, 
294 

portfolio      of     advertising 
helps  for  use   of,   for 
hats,  299,  301-318 
for  stationery,  113,  150 
Retail  advertising,  268 

department  store,  270 

dependent  on  direct  results, 
293 


INDEX 


Retail  advertising,  distin- 
guished from  general 
advertising,  268 

flexibility  of,  108 

importance  of,  294 

mail-order,  321 

national  reputation  of 
Rogers,  Peet  Co.,  290 

principal  medium  for,  269 

printed  matter  of  Rogers, 
Peet  Co.,  292 

purpose  of,  276 

real  support  of  newspa- 
pers in,  268 

relation  of,  to  mail-order 
advertising,  293 

syndicate  work  in,  295 
Retailers,      advertising      and 
sales  chart  for,  63,  111 

attitude  of,  toward  trade- 
marked  and  advertised 
goods,  152,  157 

influenced  by  advertising, 
96,  97 

relation  of  ,to  advertising,300 

S 

Sales  and  advertising  chart, 
63,  111 

Sales  and  advertising  com- 
bined, 185,  335 

Sales      problems,      studying, 
186,  188 
for    a     coffee     advertising 

campaign,  185 
for  a  shoe  advertising  cam- 
paign, ISB 


Salesman,   retailer's,   helping, 
to  sell  advertised 
goods,  177 
Salesmanship,   knowledge  of, 

required,  334 
Salesmen,     traveling,     adver- 
tising  instruction   for, 
110 
conventions  ^f,  175 
portfolios,  112,  150 
selling    advertising    to    re- 
tailers, 110 
Scientific     advertising,     183, 

197 
Sellers  of  advertising,  52 
Sellers  of  space,  19 
Selling,  at  retail,  268 
simplified    by    advertising, 
97 
Selling  points,  analyzing  the, 
204 
eliminating       unimportant, 
208 
Service  shops,  86,  87 
Signs,  painted,  46,  47 
illuminated,  48 
movable,  48 
rates  for,  47 
Sincerity  and  honesty  in  ad- 
vertising, 336 
Size,  for  posters,  47 
of  standard  magazine  page, 
34 
Specialists,  advertising,  88 
Standard  magazines,  33 
Statistics    supplied    advertis- 
ers, 89 


INDEX 


363 


Stereotypes,  71,  73 
Street-car  advertising,  41,  46 
Styles  of  advertising:   anec- 
dotes, 254,  256 
clever,  24vS 
literature,  264 
John  0.  Powers,  259 
Seymour  Eaton,  264 
simplicity,  260 
Sunday  supplements,  21 
Syndicates,    advertising,    89, 
295 


Theoretical  and  practical 
knowledge  required  in 
advertising,  331 
"Theory    of    Advertising, 

The,"  89 
Tools    of    advertising    work, 

267 
Trade  investigations,  55,  61 
Trade-mark,  193 
American  Felt  Company's, 

193,  196 
designed    for    manufactur- 
ing chemist,  191 
Kirschbaum     chen-y     tree 

trade-mark,  163 
Squibb    bottle,    label    and, 

192 
story  of  In-er-seal,  166 
value  of,  96,  197 
Trade-marking,  160,  163 


Trade-marks,  160 
page  of  designed,  165 
page  of  lettered,  161 
redesigning  old,  162 
signatures  as,  164 
Trade  papers,  31,  40 
Training   for   advertising 

work,  336 
Typographical  department  of 
advertising    agency, 
56,  69 
Typography,  56,  69,  71 


Versatility     o  f     advertising 
man,  331 


W 

Wanamaker's   editorials,    107 
Waste   in    advertising,   cause 

of,  62 
"Weeklies : 
magazines,  34 
newspapers,  22 
Window-dressing,   281 
Women's  magazines,  34 
Writers,    advertisement,    au- 
thors as,  262,  205,  266 
Writing,   art   of,    applied   to 
advertising,    250,    253, 
257,  264 

(7) 


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